Kibitzing on perennial rice shortage
APARADOX for rice-eating Filipinos is that we host the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, but we seem to have the perpetual need (except for one exceptional year) to import this basic staple.
The Philippines is the world’s eighth-largest rice producer, but our rice area harvested is small compared with those of the other major riceproducing countries in Asia. More than two-thirds (69%) of our rice area is irrigated. Furthermore, although yield improved from 2.8 t/ha in 1995 to 3.6 t/ha in 2010, it is still way below the yield potential of modern varieties.
Rice is a highly political commodity. The Philippine rice sector is central to the government’s agricultural policy. The focal points of the policies revolve around promoting rice selfsufficiency and providing high income to farmers while making rice prices affordable to consumers.
President Rodrigo Duterte says that there is no rice shortage; but he also authorized the National Food Authority to import 250,000 additional metric tons for 2018. He also, threatens rice traders to stop hoarding or else. The price of regular quality wellmilled rice has gone from 146-148 last year per kilo to 152- 158 per kilo today, exponentially higher elsewhere. The mechanism of supply and demand says that there is a deficiency.
KERNEL OF A SOLUTION. I yield my space to Alfonso G. Puyat, president of Philippine Orchard Corporation (Philcor), who offers unsolicited prescription to achieve what could be real rice self-sufficiency in the Philippines.
Puyat recommends adopting some rice industry changes:
1) Government should promote & incentivize production of highquality low-amylose (less than 18%) rice varieties. Amylose is a resistant starch (a type of insoluble fiber), meaning it is not digested but fermented in the gut by some strains of healthy bacteria).
To contribute in this advocacy, Philcor introduces foundation quality seeds GSR 8 and GSR 12 from IRRI for propagation into very pure good seeds for sale and distribution to rice farmers.
2. MULTIPLIER EFFECT. Brown rice gives a high milling recovery of 80%; (against 60%-65% for white rice). Further, when cooked, brown rice gives a cooking expansion advantage of another 23%. In total, 50%-70% additional cooked rice on the table will be given by low amylose brown rice. Effective cost per kilogram of cooked brown rice will likely decrease, thereby countering the current unusual high trend of inflation.
Brown rice contains more nutritional content than white rice because the milling process includes the removal of only the hull. This rice is an excellent source of fiber, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, potassium, selenium and calcium (much of which are lost in the milling to white rice). The Post-War miracle elixir Tiki-Tiki Zamora was a product of the washings from the white rice.
PROOF OF THE PUDDING: There’s no prophet in one’s own country; but Puyat gave his brown rice variety to IRRI and Philippine Rice Research Institute who have both given the sample high marks for taste and productivity.
Puyat needs 1,000 hectares for final proving of this variety. To jump ahead of the story, he dreams of a Philippines from rice importer to rice exporter. FEEDBACK: