for example the poorest of farm households in the philippines tend to be smallscale producers and landless workers whose rice production does not satisfy their own needs and who therefore purchase of the rice that they consume on average chapter regional levels of stunting among children under five years of age for example remain worryingly high figure while economic growth has enabled significant declines in populations suffering from chronic poverty for some households it may have only altered the nature of food insecurity from permanent to transitory rather than eliminate it entirely