BANAUE, Ifugao – To raise more public awareness of the Be Riceponsible campaign, the DA conducted the BROWN4good challenge and exhibit at the Banaue Hotel, Banaue, Ifugao, August 31, 2016. The challenge is a part of the ongoing RICEponsible campaign promoting the goodness of eating brown rice as healthier rice.
The #BROWN4good campaign and exhibit featured Cordillera’s heirloom rice. Rice in the Cordillera is traditionally processed as unpolished rice. It is rich in protein, high in fat, mineral and vitamin contents. The growing of heirloom rice is closely associated with the culture and traditions of the indigenous peoples in the highlands of Northern Luzon.
Part of the exhibition is the Heirloom Rice Project’s interventions in enhancing the productivity and enriching the legacy of heirloom rice through empowering the communities in unfavorable rice-based ecosystems; and provision of various production, harvest, postharvest equipment and processing machinery, among others.
The heirloom rice farmers’ cooperatives displayed their own varieties of heirloom rice and by-products, like rice wines. Heirloom rice delicacies such as ballatinaw, linapet and inandilla were offered for free tasting.
Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said that he will promote heirloom rice in the international market saying “I will lead the marketing of your heirloom rice all over the world; we will showcase the heirloom rice in the California state trade fair in November, so you must be ready.”
The #BROWN4good challenge is an offshoot of the 2013 Be RICEponsible campaign under the government’s bid to achieve rice self-sufficiency. It is a noble social media advocacy campaign designed to promote the consumption of unpolished brown rice to help address the four major problems afflicting the Filipino population: undernourishment, low income of rice farmers, rice insufficiency and hunger.
By CK Rosario