ILOILO City – The Department of Agriculture (DA) has implemented a food resiliency protocol to ensure that every household in Luzon and in high dense metropolitan areas will have access to safe and affordable food items in the market.
“This protocol identifies a roster of items which includes rice, sugar, vegetables, fish, live hogs, meat and oil, to name a few,” it said.
The DA said these items must be allowed “unhampered and unimpeded transit” in all quarantine checkpoints, provided that proper documentation is presented to the authorities.
All vehicles carrying crop commodities; fishery and other aquatic products with trucks and live poultry and livestock, including meat and meat products will be allowed entry.
Further, farm inputs to livestock and poultry (production, feed and feed ingredients, veterinary medicines and biologics); fishery and aquatic production, and rice, crops and vegetable production will also be allowed.
“The abovementioned commodities are hereby requested proper assistance at the designated quarantine checkpoints,” part of the memorandum read.
In addition, it said all relevant DA personnel bearing proper mission orders and identification are requested to be provided proper facilitation in the designated checkpoints to “ensure they are able to perform their operative duties relevant to the objectives of the food resiliency protocol.”
Essential farm personnel that works at the production area bearing proper documentation are also requested to be accorded passage at the quarantine checkpoints.
“This will include veterinarians, farm hands, and other farm and fisher folks,” the DA said./PN
