NFA administrator Judy Carol Dansal (right) receives the rice donation from Japan embassy officials.

The National Food Administration-National Capital Region (NFA-NCR) recently received 560 metric tons of rice donated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan.

The turnover was made under the framework of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) by Tetsuharu Mori, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines; Takashi Amo, director general for Crop Production Bureau of MAFF; Chanpithya Shimphalee, APTERR secretariat general manager; and NFA administrator Judy Carol L. Dansal at the NFA-NCR office in Paco, Manila.

The rice will be distributed to families affected by Typhoon “Ineng” in Ilocos Norte and Typhoon “Jenny in Pangasinan.

APTERR is a regional cooperation among ASEAN+3 countries, geared towards strengthening food security, poverty alleviation and malnourishment eradication. It started in 2002 during the ASEAN+3 Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF+3).

In 2018, Japan provided 225 metric tons of rice under the APTERR to displaced residents Marawi City after the infamous five-month siege.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam plus China, Japan and Korea.