The Philippines must ramp up investments in initiatives that will improve food quality to help Filipinos avoid health problems, according to the latest Global Food Security Index (GFSI), which indicated that the country was able to boost its food security last year.
GFSI 2019 Project Lead Priya Bapat told the BusinessMirror that the availability of key nutrients, such as vitamin A, zinc and iron, are low and this could pose dietary challenges that could lead to long-term health problems for Filipinos.
The Philippines improved its overall food security score to 61 in 2019, from 51 in 2018, making it the 64th most food secure country out of 113 countries, according to the GFSI.
The GFSI indicated that the Philippines improved in all three categories that were assessed by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU): affordability, availability and quality and safety.
In terms of affordability, the Philippines’s score improved by 3.5 points to 68.9 points on the back of improved access to financing for farmers.
”Additionally, poverty levels in the country have decreased. According to World Bank data, of the countries covered in the GFSI, the Philippines is the most improved country in Asia Pacific for the proportion of people living with less than $3.20/day,” Bapat said in an e-mail interview.
The Philippines ranked 65th in terms of food availability with a score of 57.7 while it placed 80th in the quality and safety category with a score of 50.3, GFSI data showed.
Lack of nutrition
The Philippines’s standing in terms of food quality and safety inched up to 50.3 in 2019, from 49.9 in 2018 due to improved access to potable water and electricity, Bapat explained.
Out of the three categories, Bapat said the country scored the lowest in quality and safety, despite the slight increase.
Bapat explained that despite the “top score for policies and programs in place to support nutritional standards and monitoring, the scores show that dietary diversity and nutrient availability remain a challenge.”
”The Philippines falls in the bottom 25 percent of countries worldwide when assessing dietary diversity. Nearly 60 percent of average caloric intake comes from starchy sources, such as rice,” she said.
The reliance on these starches highlights lower levels of consumption of more nutrient-rich food sources, such as fruits and vegetables.
”Availability of key nutrients, such as vitamin A, zinc and iron are low; the Philippines has the fifth-lowest levels of dietary iron availability of the 113 countries included in the study,” she added.
Bapat explained that these dietary challenges can lead to more long-term health and nutritional challenges, including anemia, impaired immune function and problems with eyesight.
Prescriptions
Bapat said the Philippines should improve accessibility and affordability of more nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits and vegetables, that can help to improve dietary quality.
Fruits and vegetables can be challenging to incorporate in the diet as these foods are often more expensive than starchy foods, and are also not shelf-stable,” she said.
“Countries can undertake efforts such as making greater investments in nutrition education, expanding subsidies and support programs for lower-income families to purchase nutritious foods and increasing the available supply of nutrient-dense foods, particularly in rural and marginalized communities,” she added.
Bapat noted that the Philippines could also increase its interventions related to food safety nets and access to financing for farmers especially amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
“These are two areas where countries need to assess if additional support and funding is needed in order to ensure uninterrupted domestic agricultural production and strong support for people who may be at risk during this time of economic turbulence,” she said.
The Philippines could also improve investments in research and development for agriculture, which Bapat pointed out, “is important for improving agricultural productivity, resilience to pests and natural disasters and agriculture’s environmental footprint.”
Challenges
Bapat said the Philippines “lags behind other countries in terms of making public commitments to address the impacts of climate change on agriculture. “She noted that efforts could be poured in “developing mitigation strategies through international agreements and investing in early warning systems.”
“In the Global Food Security Index, the Philippines ranks as one of the top 3 Asian countries most exposed to climate change impacts. The Philippines in particular faces high levels of risk from factors such as temperature rise and severity of storms,” she said.
The Philippines should also sustain its efforts in protecting and properly managing its land, water and marine resources which are “essential” in ensuring long-term food security, Bapat said.
“The Philippines’s marine ecosystems are in need of protection from overfishing. Recent efforts to expand marine protected areas are one way to ensure sustainable management of fisheries,” she added.
The GFSI is a comprehensive assessment of the state of global food security developed by the EIU, supported by Corteva Agriscience.