Believe it or not, PhilRice executive urges Filipinos to eat less, less rice

SCIENCE CITY OF MUNOZ, Nueva Ecija, July 14, 2011-An economist from the Philippine Rice Research Institute who is the country’s premier rice-production research  agency has advised Filipinos to eat less and less rice and diversify their diet by feasting on cassava, banana and other crops to help contribute in attaining national food security and rice self-sufficiency within three years.

Dr. Flordeliza Bordey, spokesperson of the Food Staple Plan of the Philippine Food Staples Self-sufficiency Roadmap (FSSR) for 2011-2016 said that the Filipinos should follow the lead of Japan and China which are rice-sufficient despite their meager rice area harvested per capita because of their people’s diversified diet.

PhilRice is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) which is mandated to produce high-yielding, cost-reducing rice and superior technology for the Filipino farmers and the citizenry.

“To maintain the country’s per capita consumption of rice at 120 kilograms per year, diversifying diet will improve the Filipinos’ nutrition,” Bordey said, saying that white corn, sweet potato, cassava, and banana can be used as substitutes for rice. 

In the country’s FSSR, a document produced through a series of workshops spearheaded by the Rice Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA), it was mentioned that substituting other staples for rice is seen as strategy in preventing further increase in per capita rice consumption.

Bordey said that the DA’s Rice, Corn, and High-Value Commercial Crops programs will work on augmenting the supply of alternative staples by 3.5 percent a year and increasing their accessibility and affordability. She said there is a pressing need for the country to be rice self-sufficient with the threat of climate change in the traditional rice-exporting countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, India, and the US, which control 84 percent of the world rice export.

She added that “the thin and heavily concentrated international rice trade also continues to be a major concern for food policymakers,” noting that in 2008,  the world price of rice increased dramatically owing to export bans issued by exporters and panic buying of importers.

Roberto Alingog, PR Bank president and 2011 UP outstanding alumnus in entrepreneurship and employment said that eating sweet potato, a crop with more complex carbohydrates and high fiber content, is not only good for the health but also helps the country save millions of pesos from rice exportation.

The less-rice consumption advocacies have seen popular showbiz personalities like actress Gretchen Barreto, whose best remembered health regimen include the sweet potato diet, which she ate boiled, coupled with fruits.

The FSSR said that for the country to be rice self-sufficient, government must embark on such interventions as development and maintenance of irrigation systems; increasing farmers’ access to high-quality seeds; research, development, and promotion of appropriate technology; extension and farmers’ education; reducing post-harvest losses; and developing upland rice-based farming systems using sustainable agricultural practices. (Jason de Asis)