DA-CAR features Cordillera Heirloom Rice in Be RICEponsible campaign
To raise more public awareness on 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 on-going RICEponsible campaign promoted the goodness of eating brown rice as healthier rice.
The #BROWN4good campiagn and exhibit featured Cordillera’s heirloom rice. The rice is traditionally processed as unpolished rice. It is known to be rich in protein, high in fat, mineral and vitamin contents. The growing of heirloom rice is closely associated to the culture and traditions of the native Filipinos 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 machineries, among others.
Moreover, the heirloom rice farmers’ cooperatives displayed their own varieties of heirloom rice and by-products like rice wines. A free tasting of heirloom rice delicacies such as ballatinaw, linapet and inandilla were also done.
Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said that he will support the heirloom rice to 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 also be ready.”
The #BROWN4good challenge is an offshoot of the 2013 Be RICEponsible campaign in accordance with 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 to inlcude undernourishment, low income of rice farmers, rice self-sufficiency and hunger.//
