THE Philippines wastes around P7.2 billion worth of rice annually, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said yesterday, which was why they urged the public to only get what they could eat on the table.
Dr. Karen Barroga, PhilRice’s deputy executive director for rice development, said the figure, equivalent to nearly 385,000 metric tons of rice annually, could feed 2.5 million Filipinos instead of being wasted.
“Marami kasi… iyong sabi ng 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,” said Barroga in a Palace briefing.
She added: “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 [a] cup of rice para hindi sayang iyong ano… maiwasan natin ang wastage,” she added.
Forty-six major areas in the country, including Quezon City, Manila and Baguio City, already have ordinances recommending restaurants to do half-cups servings of rice, said Dr. Hazel Antonio of the “Be Riceponsible” campaign lead.
Antonio noted that those with high rice consumption and wastage came from provinces.
“Ina-assume namin na ‘yung data na ‘yun dahil pinapakain din naman sa mga aso, sa pusa, so hindi sila masyado conscious actually, maayos ‘yung data na table wastage talaga,” she said.
Antonio and Barroga said PhilRice would push for the revival of the “Half-Rice Bill” to discourage consumers from wasting rice.
“Kasi ang lagi rin nilang sinasabi, mas maganda kung national iyong law para at least kahit saan ka man pumunta, alam mo na dapat magsi-serve sila ng half,” said Antonio.
“Ito naman ay in consultation with the businesses din, noong trinay namin sa mga provinces and cities, and okay naman sa kanila as along as wala silang masyadong … wala namang daw cost,” she added.
It was also important, they said, for businesses to impose strict guidelines on penalties for those who have excess rice, most especially when the customers avail of “unlimited rice” promos.
“I think, but some of those doing unli rice, they also would want to encourage na huwag mag-aksaya ‘di ba. Kasama rin sa ano nila iyon na you get but you have to finish off iyong rice na iyon. So, I think, there’s common interest naman na we avoid wastage,” she said.
High rice prices prompted President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in September to impose a price cap on two rice types.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) last month said that Philippine rice production is recovering this year, after the country’s rice self-sufficiency dipped in 2022.
DA spokesperson Arnel De Mesa noted that rice self-sufficiency went down to 77 percent in 2022 from 82 percent in 2021. This is said to be a record-low in self-sufficiency in many years for the Philippines.
They are also working to boost irrigation as a way to increase agricultural productivity in rice, especially with the onset of El Niño. (ABS-CBN News)
