Consumers can help PHL achieve rice self-sufficiency — PhilRice

Diversifying the carbohydrates in their diet and not wasting their rice would enable consumers to help the country become self-sufficient in rice next year, according to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). PhilRice socio-economist Dr. Flordeliza Bordey, who is also spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture's 2011-2016 Food Staples Self-Sufficiency Program, urged consumers to try equally nutritious foods such as white corn, sweet potato, cassava, and banana as substitutes for rice. Bordey said countries like Japan and China are rice-sufficient despite their small rice area harvested per capita because of their populations' diversified diet. PhilRice is also promoting unpolished or brown rice, a popular health food.that retains most of the nutrients from the rice bran that are removed by polishing. Consumers are also advised not to waste rice by cooking only what they and their family can eat, recycling leftover rice into other dishes, ordering only rice in restaurants that they can consume, and properly cooking rice—not letting them be over- or undercooked. According to PhilRice, each Filipino wastes two tablespoons of cooked rice every day, which, when not wasted, could result in import savings of up to P6.2 billion and could feed 2.6 million hungry Filipinos a year. On the part of government, PhilRice executive director Dr. Eufemio Rasco Jr. said, “Achieving rice self-sufficiency will come from two things: irrigation and good seed. By irrigation, you can actually increase yield by an average of two tons per hectare. We are also pushing the use of hybrid seeds to farmers. Hybrid trials show better yield compared with the best inbred varieties.” Rasco said their corporate vision of green farming includes the technologies that reduce input such as energy and post-harvest losses while smart rice cultivation covers labor-reducing and knowledge-intensive technologies. The institute is celebrating National Rice Awareness Month and its 27th anniversary this month. — BM, GMA News