Back when I was busy pounding the agri-commodities beat, one of the things that I obsessively monitored was the National Food Authority’s (NFA) rice inventory. This is not a “sexy” topic for any business reporter. Why bother with rice stocks, when it’s more exciting to cover, say, a corporate takeover that can shock and awe the stock market?
So it might not be sexy, but it’s nonetheless significant whenever there’s news that the NFA’s inventory has fallen below the required 15-day buffer stock, as this means that the state-owned body will have to tender for rice anytime soon. According to a report by BusinessMirror journalist Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas, the NFA is urging the interagency National Food Security Committee to recommend the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice to beef up its stockpile, which is now just equivalent to three days of consumption. At an average daily consumption rate of 31,000 MT, that means that the NFA is holding just over 90,000 MT in its warehouses.
Anyone who has a stake in the global rice market will pounce on this information, as the Philippines is a huge rice importer, and its import volume can move prices. In the domestic market, this incites unscrupulous local traders to hoard and jack up prices. And this is quite worrisome in a country where, in most poor households, rice accounts for a huge chunk of their budget.
But more than prices and market trends, any story on the rice inventory is one that hits us on the gut, as this is one staple that we can live without. This even if popular low-carb dietary regimens like South Beach or Keto have discouraged a health-conscious populace from consuming too much rice. How else can we enjoy our adobo, kare-kare and paksiw na lechon without a serving of fluffy white rice to sop up the rich sauce of our favorite ulam?
In my diabetic family, eating too much rice is a problem, as it can jack up the blood sugar levels of my parents. I managed to mitigate this problem by persuading my parents to switch to unpolished brown rice, as its glycemic index is lower than white rice. Only our kasambahay defied the white-rice ban in our household, as she refused to eat bland brown rice.
But, as I became more conscious with what I eat, nutritional content is not only thing that bothers me about rice eating. It’s the fact that rice farming is resource-intensive. Not only does it consume too much land, water and other farm inputs, but rice farms’ carbon footprint is quite steep. The Food and Agriculture Organization said that agriculture (including forestry, livestock and fisheries production) accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Asia has the highest GHG output from agriculture at 44 percent. The International Rice Research Institute (Irri) said that 20 percent of Asian agriculture’s GHG emissions come from paddy-rice production, and it’s a major source of methane gas.
Rice fields are also the first casualty of extreme weather events caused by a warmer planet. Rice production falls when there’s El Niño or La Niña, prompting the Philippines to import more. With climate change bringing in longer dry spell and stronger typhoons, local rice production is expected to decline further, forcing the country to rely more on imports for food security.
I’m still optimistic, however, that there’s a way to make rice more climate-friendly. The IRRI, for instance, is developing and promoting technologies that will reduce rice farms’ GHG emissions. One of these is the alternate wetting and drying technology that can cut water consumption by up to 30 percent and methane emission by up to 50 percent. The AWD technology is now being used in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, although the Irri said it’s yet to be implemented on a wider scale. The IRRI is also developing climate-ready rice, or rice varieties that have tolerance to various climate stresses like drought, heat, salinity and flooding. They have also been tested and disseminated in various Asian countries. Unfortunately for us consumers, we have no way of knowing (and consciously buying) climate-friendly rice varieties, as none of the commercially available rice are branded as such.
But, even prior to the development of these climate-ready varieties, we already have traditional rice varieties that can be considered climate-friendly, as they’re resistant to pest and diseases, require less fertilizer and are even tasty to boot. Julian Gonsalves, senior consultant of the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, said the institute has been collecting and propagating these heirloom varieties for years, and the IIRR, in fact, has a plot of land in its headquarters in Silang, Cavite, that is dedicated to the cultivating of various indigenous rice varieties. Gonsalves said most of these upland rice varieties that can tolerate both drought and excessive rainfall. They’re healthier, too, he said, as they have more fiber and anthocyanins, which can serve as antioxidants.
A lot of these heirloom varieties are grown in the Cordillera region and are cultivated by small farmers. If we want to reduce our carbon footprint while, at the same time, provide livelihood to these farmers, we can do so by buying these heirloom rice, which are available in weekend markets and food expos. If you are keen on knowing more about these heirloom rice varieties, you might also want to get the seed catalog Philippine Traditional Rice Varieties published by the Bureau of Plant Industry.
Another option for us who want a more climate-friendly diet is to cut rice consumption and eat more food that are grown with less carbon emissions. So perhaps, we can eat more beans, lentils, leafy greens and amaranth (more known as kulitis and is used in the classic Ilocano dish diningding). Yes, it’s more eco-friendly to be vegetarian, and that’s something that I will discuss in my next column.
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Prime Sarmiento is a longtime business journalist who specializes in food, agribusiness and commodities-trade reporting. Her stories have been published in both local and international publications, including Nikkei Asian Review, China Daily, Science and Development News Network and Dow Jones Newswires.
Comments and ideas are welcome at prime.sarmiento@gmail.com.