At the height of the quarantines arising from the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) pushed to ensure the continuous flow of food to Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR). With the resulting restrictions in the movement of goods, services and people, it was a challenge to meet the food demand of around 12 to 13 million inhabitants packed in the limited land area of the NCR.

​In fact, international organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognized the challenge as serious, such that they mobilized teams to examine how logistical bottlenecks in food systems during a pandemic can be hurdled.