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Monday, January 28, 2013

DA leads National Year of Rice celebration

By Claro A. Lanipa

PAGADIAN CITY, 28 Jan (PIA) – With the primary goal of attaining rice-self-sufficiency this year, President Benigno S. Aquino III issued Proclamation No. 494 declaring the year 2013 as the National Year of Rice and mandated the Department of Agriculture (DA) to lead the celebration.

In a recent press conference held at Hotel Guillermo this city, DA-9 Regional Information Officer Melba Wee said part of the strategies to attain rice-self-sufficiency is the conduct of intensified information campaign and social marketing to enjoin producers, consumers and policy makers to help achieve the said goal.
Through these strategies, Wee said, by the end of 2013 fifty percent of the rice consuming public will commit to become  responsible rice consumers by eating just right amount of rice, not wasting rice, and eating other sources of carbohydrates.

“As to rice producers, 50 percent of them shall adopt a more efficient and new production technologies, and for policy makers to come up with policy statements or ordinances in support of the NYR goal,” Wee added.

“Filipinos are eating too much rice. We are eating more rice than other food groups, when rice and other grains should only be one fourth of our meal plate,” Wee stressed.

”On the other hand, every Filipino wastes about two tablespoons of cooked rice or nine grams of uncooked rice daily,” Wee recounted.

DA report stated that in 2010, wasted rice was equivalent to 13% of the total rice imports of the year, which was also equivalent to P6.2 billion or the consumption of nearly 2.6 million Filipinos a year.
With this, Wee encouraged the rice-consuming public to eat just the right amount of rice, try to take alternative food staples (such as banana, potato, cassava, corn and gabi), and eat brown rice for better health and avoid food wastage. (FPG/CAL/PIA9)