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[av_heading heading=’Wasting rice’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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IN RECENT years, the Department of Agriculture has been introducing high-yielding varieties and better farming techniques to achieve rice self-sufficiency in the country. Recently, it started the #BROWN4good campaign encouraging people to patronize brown rice because its milling recovery is 10 percent higher compared to white rice.
These are well and good. But the truth is, the public plays the most significant role to ensure this country’s food sufficiency. According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), an average of five cups of steamed rice is cooked daily for every Filipino but nine grams (around three tablespoons) of this is wasted. These morsels add up to more than 300,000 tons a year! So what is clear is that by simply changing its wasteful consumption patterns, each family can help ensure rice sufficiency.
This brings us to the question: Why import so much rice when a significant amount is thrown away, taking with it all the nutrients and energy that rice can give?
The Philippines, with a rapidly growing population now at 100 million people and uses rice as the staple food, has in recent years become the world’s biggest importer of the grain. Imports peaked at 1.8 million tons in 2008 during a global shortage triggered by poor harvests and bad weather. Successive governments have declared intentions to achieve rice self-sufficiency and failed.
Some of the problems have been poor farming techniques and frequent typhoons that have devastated vital rice-growing areas. But corruption, in which officials benefit from importing rice, and a lack of decisive government action to feed the booming population, are generally regarded as other important factors.
According to the IRRI, however, middle-class families tend to waste more than low-income families. Apparently, the more people have, the more they waste? Alarmed of this, state-run Philippine Rice Research Institute has called for a nationwide campaign to change Filipinos’ wasteful consumption patterns.
Clearly, by simply by wasting less, the Philippines, one of the world’s biggest importers of rice, could go a long way to achieving its elusive goal of self-sufficiency.
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