SOURCE: ANN
Go easy on rice.
Philippine Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said Filipinos should diversify their diet to include more vegetables and tubers to ease the pressure on rice, which the Philippines has to import from other countries.
Download our free toolbar here
Go easy on rice.
Philippine Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said Filipinos should diversify their diet to include more vegetables and tubers to ease the pressure on rice, which the Philippines has to import from other countries.
Alcala, in an interview, said the DA would embark on an urban gardening program next month to encourage urban poor Filipinos to grow plants and vegetables in their backyards using recycled materials.
"You can use softdrink bottles to plant kangkong (water spinach), tomatoes. Just place it beside your house and you have a vegetable garden," Alcala said.
The DA, Alcala said, would like to see Filipinos plant camote (sweet potato) and corn, which can be used as rice extenders. Bananas could be used as rice extenders, too.
"We are teaching the poor to do this not because they are poor, but because these plants are nutritious," he said.
"At the end of the day, if this clicks, we will go to DepEd and ask them to resurrect the program where children are taught to eat at least a cup of vegetables a week," Alcala added.
By diversifying the Filipinos' diet, "we ease the pressure on rice," he said.
Dr. William Dar, a former DA acting secretary and now director-general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics said there has been heavy concentration on calorie sources, mainly rice, over the year at the expense of other sources of protein.
"Now we have to promote a balanced diet, the diversification of production process should be promoted," he said.
Dar said the Philippines should also cultivate high value and protein-rich crops like legumes and nuts. Dar on Tuesday presented Alcala with high-yielding cultivars of Asha peanuts, sorghum, and pigeon peas.
According to the ICRISAT official, these varieties are hardy and have high commercial value. Pigeon peas, for instance, could be exported to other countries like India, Dar said.
The Philippines is currently the world's top rice importer, buying about 10 percent of its needs from abroad. The National Food Authority recently signed an agreement with the Vietnamese government to buy as much as 1.5 million metric tons of rice from the latter for the next three years.
According to the DA, palay production for 2010 is forecast at 16.02 million MT, 1.5 percent below the 16.27 million MT output in 2009.
The decrease is mainly brought about by the adverse effects of the El Ni?o phenomenon that resulted in the contraction of harvest area from 4.53 million hectares in 2009 to 4.37 million hectares this year, or by 3.7 percent.
"You can use softdrink bottles to plant kangkong (water spinach), tomatoes. Just place it beside your house and you have a vegetable garden," Alcala said.
The DA, Alcala said, would like to see Filipinos plant camote (sweet potato) and corn, which can be used as rice extenders. Bananas could be used as rice extenders, too.
"We are teaching the poor to do this not because they are poor, but because these plants are nutritious," he said.
"At the end of the day, if this clicks, we will go to DepEd and ask them to resurrect the program where children are taught to eat at least a cup of vegetables a week," Alcala added.
By diversifying the Filipinos' diet, "we ease the pressure on rice," he said.
Dr. William Dar, a former DA acting secretary and now director-general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics said there has been heavy concentration on calorie sources, mainly rice, over the year at the expense of other sources of protein.
"Now we have to promote a balanced diet, the diversification of production process should be promoted," he said.
Dar said the Philippines should also cultivate high value and protein-rich crops like legumes and nuts. Dar on Tuesday presented Alcala with high-yielding cultivars of Asha peanuts, sorghum, and pigeon peas.
According to the ICRISAT official, these varieties are hardy and have high commercial value. Pigeon peas, for instance, could be exported to other countries like India, Dar said.
The Philippines is currently the world's top rice importer, buying about 10 percent of its needs from abroad. The National Food Authority recently signed an agreement with the Vietnamese government to buy as much as 1.5 million metric tons of rice from the latter for the next three years.
According to the DA, palay production for 2010 is forecast at 16.02 million MT, 1.5 percent below the 16.27 million MT output in 2009.
The decrease is mainly brought about by the adverse effects of the El Ni?o phenomenon that resulted in the contraction of harvest area from 4.53 million hectares in 2009 to 4.37 million hectares this year, or by 3.7 percent.
