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'Get only what you need': Philippines wastes P7 billion worth of rice annually: PhilRice

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Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Residents from Palanas in Barangay Vasra, Quezon City line up early in the morning to purchase rice sold at Php25 per kilo at the Department of Agriculture on a limited basis on July 11, 2023. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/life/11/09/20230711-kadiwa-rice-sale-line-md-6.jpg"/><figcaption>Residents from Palanas in Barangay Vasra, Quezon City line up early in the morning to purchase rice sold at Php25 per kilo at the Department of Agriculture on a limited basis on July 11, 2023. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA — The Philippines wastes around P7.2 billion worth of rice annually, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) said on Thursday, which was why they urged the public to only get what they could eat on the table.Dr. Karen Barroga, PhilRice&#x27;s deputy executive director for rice development, said the figure, equivalent to nearly 385,000 metric tons of rice annually, could feed 2.5 million Filipinos instead of being wasted.&quot;Marami kasi… iyong sabi ng natin ‘takaw-mata’. So we are… actually the campaign says, get only what you need and what we have done in the past was to encourage a half cup serving as default,&quot; said Barroga in a Palace briefing. &quot;Some of the provinces actually and cities, restaurants in the cities and provinces partnered with us to make sure that we could have a default serving of half [a] cup of rice para hindi sayang iyong ano… maiwasan natin ang wastage,&quot; she added. Forty-six major areas in the country, including Quezon City, Manila, and Baguio City, already have ordinances recommending restaurants to do half-cups servings of rice, said Dr. Hazel Antonio of the &quot;Be Riceponsible&quot; campaign lead. Antonio noted that those with high rice consumption and wastage came from provinces. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/02/19/19/serge-osmea-suggests-reducing-tariff-on-rice-imports-every-year">Serge Osmeña suggests reducing tariff on rice imports every year</a></li></ul>&quot;Ina-assume namin na yung data na yun dahil pinapakain din naman sa mga aso, sa pusa, so hindi sila masyao conscious actually, maayos &#x27;yung data na table wastage talaga,&quot; she said. Antonio and Barroga said PhilRice would push for the revival of the &quot;Half-Rice Bill&quot; to discourage consumers from wasting rice. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/10/16/23/higher-rice-yields-seen-raising-self-sufficiency-this-year">DA: Rice production recovering after dip in self-sufficiency in 2022</a></li></ul>&quot;Kasi ang lagi rin nilang sinasabi, mas maganda kung national iyong law para at least kahit saan ka man pumunta, alam mo na dapat magsi-serve sila ng half,&quot; said Antonio. &quot;Ito naman ay in consultation with the businesses din, noong trinay namin sa mga provinces and cities, and okay naman sa kanila as along as wala silang masyadong … wala namang daw cost,&quot; she added. It was also important, they said, for businesses to impose strict guidelines on penalties for those who have excess rice, most especially when the customers avail of &quot;unlimited rice&quot; promos. &quot;Businesses ito, that’s their right but we also have to create that awareness that there is much wastage happening,&quot; Barroga said. &quot;Kaya nagbibigay din po kami ng mga datos na importante para maka-guide sa ating decisions na ito pong kalimitang nagagawa ay nagkakaroon ng wastage,&quot; she said. &quot;I think, but some of those doing unli rice, they also would want to encourage na huwag mag-aksaya ‘di ba. Kasama rin sa ano nila iyon na you get but you have to finish off iyong rice na iyon. So, I think, there’s common interest naman na we avoid wastage,&quot; she said. <figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2868343" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div style="text-align:center">Video from PTV</div>High rice prices prompted President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/02/23/cap-on-rice-prices-to-take-effect-sept-5-palace">September</a> to impose a price cap on two rice types. The Department of Agriculture (DA) last month said that Philippine rice production is recovering this year, after the country&#x27;s rice self-sufficiency dipped in 2022.DA spokesperson Arnel De Mesa noted that rice self-sufficiency went down to 77 percent in 2022 from 82 percent in 2021. This is said to be a record-low in self-sufficiency in many years for the Philippines.They are also working to boost irrigation as a way to increase agricultural productivity in rice, especially with the onset of El Niño.

A research group bats for reducing rice servings to half-a-cup to cut wastage which totals P7 billion annually.

'Get only what you need': Philippines wastes P7 billion worth of rice annually: PhilRice

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'Get only what you need': Philippines wastes P7 billion worth of rice annually: PhilRice

Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 09, 2023 01:39 PM PHT

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Updated Nov 09, 2023 02:07 PM PHT

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