2 tablespoons of rice 'wasted' per person daily —DA exec

Two tablespoons of rice are wasted per person on a daily basis, according to an official from the Department of Agriculture - Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) on Thursday.

"Ang data po namin, well it’s actually two tablespoon of rice is wasted by every person daily… a day," Dr. Karen Barroga, deputy executive director of DA-PhilRice, said at a Palace press briefing.

"That would be costing around (7.2 billion) pesos... Seven (billion) for a year," she added, noting that this could feed 2.5 million Filipinos.

Barroga said the public is being encouraged to get only the amount of rice that they need. 

"Marami kasi… iyong sabi nga natin ‘takaw-mata’. So we are… actually the campaign says, get only what you need and what we have done in the past was to encourage a half cup serving as default," Barroga said. 

According to Barroga, there are 46 local government units (LGUs) that are enforcing ordinances about serving half cup of rice.

"And some of the provinces actually and cities, restaurants in the cities and provinces partnered with us to make sure that we could have a default serving of half cup of rice para hindi sayang iyong ano… maiwasan natin ang wastage," she said.

The Philippines celebrates National Rice Month Awareness every November pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 524 signed on January 5th, 2004. 

The celebration aims to heighten public awareness on efforts to attain rice self-sufficiency and address malnutrition and poverty. 

With the theme, “Be RICEponsible," the National Rice Awareness Month is being spearheaded by the DA and its attached agency, PhilRice. —KBK, GMA Integrated News