Jun Torres

Cut rice wastage, Pinoys urged

Filipino can cope better with the increasing cost and scarcity of rice if only wastage in rice production can be minimized, according to a Philippine Rice Research Institute official.

Dr. Leocadio Sebastian, PhilRice executive director, said the institute’s studies showed that the equivalent of about 450,000 metric tons (MT) of milled rice went to waste last year.

“That’s equivalent to one-fourth of the rice (we) imported last year,” Sebastian said.

“But the situation is not that hopeless yet. At present, the rice requirement can still be reduced by the people themselves as there is room for savings on rice production losses and wastage in (its) use,” he said.

“Barring calamitous events in our next cropping season, and with our good harvest this current season plus the announcement by Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap that we have buffer stock of imported rice, we do not see a rice crisis this year,” Sebastian said.

‘No Shortage’

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo earlier said there was “scarcity of rice” because of global warming and increased world demand but that there is “no shortage” of commodity for the consumers in the country.

The Bureau of Post Harvest Research and Extension (BPHRE) here said that post-production losses in palay production because of the mishandling of grains reached more than 14.84 percent, or 1`.5 million MT, according to a 1994 national assessment.

Grain losses occur in harvesting, threshing, transport, drying, storage and milling stages, said the BPHRE.

Losses are also incurred when palay is not harvested on time as overripe grains fall from the stalks.

In most provinces where drying facilities are rare, palay is dried on roads and on basketball courts. When concrete pavements are not available, some farmers resort to drying the grains on sleeping mats.

Losses in drying

These drying methods often lead to losses as grains are destroyed, carried by strong wind or eaten by stray chickens and birds.

The BPHRE said poor storage conditions also lead to attacks by rats feeding on the stockpiled palay.

The bureau has yet to release an updated study on post-production losses but the agency estimated that the losses have gone down to about 10 percent.

PhilRice reports said rice production in the country has been deficient for the past 130 years, except for a two-year period in the late 1960s.

Data gathered from publications of PhilRice and the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) showed that the Philippines has been importing rice since 1869 to fill the gap between production and consumption.

Rare surplus

It was only in 1970 that the country did not import rice as palay production reached such levels as to come up with an exportable surplus.

PhilRice records showed the country imported rice at an average of 806,000 MT a year from 1999 to 2003. rice importation in 2004 jumped to 1.001 million MT, 1.882 million MT in 2005, 1.716 million MT in 2006, and more than 1.8 million MT in 2007.

These volumes are a far cry from the less than 1,000 MT of rice imported yearly from 1979 to 1991.

“Rice importations were resorted to meet our consumption requirement,” said Sebastian.

However, this did not mean that the country’s rice production was decreasing, he said.