Ways to support Filipino farmers during—and beyond—the National Rice Awareness Month (2024)
The National Rice Awareness Month in the Philippines is celebrated yearly during the month of November in support of Filipino rice farmers and their efforts to produce the most important staple crop in the country.
Undertaken jointly by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the celebration also hopes to instill into the minds of every Filipino to value every grain of rice they consume. Filipino farmers play a big role in keeping our country’s production of rice not only robust, but also sustainable for the benefit of every Filipino and the country as a whole.
To celebrate local farmers and enable them to keep growing rice for years to come, here are some ways we can show them support during the celebration of National Rice Awareness month and even beyond.
The value of patronizing your own remains to be the best way to keep local industries alive and thriving. In this case, the rice production sub-sector under the Agriculture sector. Buying local products is also one of the best ways to support both the local and national economy as it aims to bounce back amidst the pandemic. It is also a way for Filipinos to keep their nationalistic fervor alive, knowing that every kilo of rice they buy goes a long way for a farmer to keep planting rice and offer enough supply for a nation who consumes rice almost every meal time.
Farmer’s Market is still the best
Buying at a farmer’s market means keeping farmers’ livelihood sustainable by being a market for their produce, and guaranteed income to further encourage and enable them to keep planting rice.
PLDT and wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), for its part, came up with #BuyLocal, a program under its FarmSmart advocacy that aims to help support local farmers by providing them access to sure and direct markets where the farmers’ produce are sold at fair and competitive prices so they can earn more for their families. Smart also came up with promotional bundle deals with discount codes and rice donation campaigns to encourage more consumers and groups to support the program.
One of the key challenges faced by Filipino rice farmers is the lack of capital as rice farming is not only labor intensive but capital intensive as well. Since many of them do not have enough funds for farming inputs, many rice farmers are forced to borrow money from informal lenders who charge them exorbitant interest rates that can go as high as 20% per month, or from scrupulous traders who force them to sell their produce at a low price. Many farmers are left with no choice but to sell at a huge loss and borrow again just to pay off debts.
To help address this, Smart partnered with Cropital, a globally recognized social agri-enterprise that provides local farmers access to affordable and scalable financing through crowdfunding. When you buy rice from Smart’s adopted farming communities, you can help add up to Php100 to a farmers’ sustainability fund. This fund is provided as low-interest loans to farmers, who will use it to buy farming inputs for their next cropping cycle. Once they have paid back the loans, the fund will then be used to support another batch of farmers.
Although the Philippines has grown leaps and bounds on its way to becoming an industrialized nation, the agriculture sector remains alive as more farmers, particularly in the countryside, depend on farming/agriculture as their main source of livelihood.
Consider involving the sector in your community efforts
Being the staple crop in the country, rice is always a need in almost every Filipino home. #BuyLocal is also designed to help community-based initiatives such as the popular Community Pantry. Benefactors of the community pantries from anywhere can buy via #BuyLocal; they not only help provide farmers another steady market but also help the pantries provide food for the people in poverty-stricken areas.
Buying through #BuyLocal also helps in disaster relief anywhere in the country, especially now that our kababayans up north were severely affected by Typhoon Maring that caused severe damage to crops and properties. The program’s “Buy One, Give One” donates a sack of ordinary white rice for every purchase of a sack of premium white rice, to aid in relief efforts in calamity-stricken and indigent families, plus P200 from the sales goes to farmers’ sustainability fund.
Buy rice and other produce straight from farmers, whether for your family’s consumption or for the benefit of communities in need. Farmers are business partners and long-term suppliers or allies in economic recovery, nation building and nutrition promotion especially when farm-to-table approach is supported.
Support local rice farmers and help uplift their livelihood. Buy their rice through Cropital's website and input smartbuylocal to get a discount. Interested individuals or groups who wish to conduct their citizenship efforts through the program may send an email at [emailprotected].
Buy local produces such as local rice. Patronizing our own country's products not only helps our local farmers but also helps with the country's economic growth. Supporting local products and helping with livelihood programs keeps local industries alive and makes the Philippine identity more prominent.
Agriculture plays a significant role in the Philippine economy. Involving about 40 percent of Filipino workers, it contributes an average of 20 percent to the Gross Domestic Product.
The lack of storage facilities, farm-to-market roads, and equipment needed to prevent losses from exposure, pests, and natural deterioration have been perennial issues for Filipino farmers.
National Rice Awareness Month is celebrated every year in November in the Philippines. It raises awareness about the importance of healthier forms of rice that are locally produced such as pigmented and brown rice.
Agriculture dominates Philippine economy. It furnishes employment to about 3 million persons or about 60 per cent of the gainfully employed workers. Agricultural operations provide 40 to 45 per cent of the total national income and about 75 to 80 per cent of the country's exports.
Filipino farmers fight to preserve their role in building a climate-resilient food system and to defend peasants' right to make the land productive for their families and for the country. They advocate for the redistribution of land so landless peasants can attain food sovereignty and food security.
The farmers' rights are the following: (1) support to the price program; (2) ensure market; (3) be covered with social security; (4) avail of credit system at minimal interest rates and minimum collateral requirements; (5) avail of farm inputs and services; (6) be heard and represented in the government; (7) be updated ...
Teodoro said the government should help in developing smart agriculture as well as research and development to increase farmers' productivity and improve agricultural produce. He also supports building more farm-to-market roads to lower logistics costs in delivering farm produce to markets.
Food production cannot keep up with the immense population growth. The Philippines' population expansion rate was estimated at 1.4 percent in 2019 by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), while the agriculture sector grew by a measly 0.5 percent in late 2020.
However, agricultural sector has been beset with persistent challenges resulting in low farm incomes, low rural employment, lack of food security, and meager agricultural competitiveness.
More than its role on the dinner table, rice is also ingrained in Philippine tradition. Newlyweds get showered with grains of rice as a sign of blessing, and, as custom dictates, the presence of rice is needed too before moving into a new home to ward off evil spirits.
It is the livelihood basis for millions of smallholders in the Philippines and the world. It is a highly variable and adaptable crop that can grow in various climates and be cultivated under different practices.
Therefore, Filipinos became rice eaters because it has been part of their culture and history. It became a norm to early Filipinos and has been passed down from generation to generation. It is called 'staple food' by most Filipinos because it is being paired with different viands even noodles and pasta.
Briones explained that population growth, as well as diminishing farm size and declining incomes in agriculture, have incentivized the “shift out of agriculture.”
The main advantage of intensive farming is its increased performance when higher yields are harvested from smaller territories. This brings economic benefits to landowners and provides food for the growing population. Intensive agriculture fully satisfies the market demand even in densely inhabited areas.
In the Philippines, organic farmers use various methods to manage their soils, including traditional methods such as mulching and crop rotation and modern techniques such as vermicomposting. Mulching is a common organic soil management practice in the Philippines.
To help and empower the farming and fishing communities and the private sector to produce enough, accessible and affordable food for every Filipino and a decent income for all.
Practices that farmers use on their farms might include no-till, putting fences around streams, planting cover crops, collecting water runoff, and integrating crop and pasture rotations.
Not only do they support the competitiveness and sustainability of rural and farm economies, they serve to: Protect and enhance natural resources and the environment. Provide a nursery for the development of new enterprises and marketing systems. Maintain rural populations.
This contract, when read with the Plant Variety Protection Law of the Philippines or Republic Act No.9168 punishes farmers when they reproduce, replant, reuse, share or sell the reproduced seeds to other farmers. 9 The following sections of the PVP Law outlines penalties should farmers reproduce patented seeds: Sec.
The basic mandate of PCIC is to provide insurance protection to the country's agricultural producers particularly the subsistence farmers, against loss of their crops and/or non-crop agricultural assets on account of natural calamities such as typhoons, floods, droughts, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, plant pests ...
The Morrill Act of 1862 established the land-grant colleges to teach agriculture and other subjects. The Hatch Act of 1887 funded agricultural research, and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 funded agricultural education. The Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916 created cooperative banks to provide loans to farmers.
The Farm Security Administration provided emergency relief, promoted soil conservation, resettled farmers on more productive land, and aided migrant farm workers who had been forced off their land. The Soil Conservation Service helped farmers enrich their soil and stem erosion.
Value of Production in Agriculture and Fisheries Declined by -1.0 Percent in the Fourth Quarter of 2022. In the fourth quarter of 2022, value of production in agriculture and fisheries at constant 2018 prices decreased by -1.0 percent.
Shifting cultivation and indiscriminate logging are the major causes of soil erosion in the Philippine uplands. Farming systems in the Philippines during the past few years can be generally characterized by intensive farm production using inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.
The farmers and ranchers surveyed in August 2022 say circ*mstances are pretty much the same or worse. Nearly three-quarters of farmers saw a reduction in harvest yields due to drought, while 37% said they were tilling over fields that won't produce anything because of a lack of water, up from 24% last year.
Buy local produces such as local rice. Patronizing our own country's products not only helps our local farmers but also helps with the country's economic growth. Supporting local products and helping with livelihood programs keeps local industries alive and makes the Philippine identity more prominent.
MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr plans to address a continuing surge in prices of basic commodities in the country by importing more agricultural produce in 2023.
Farmers harvest palay at a rice field in Lingayen, Pangasinan on March 11, 2023. MANILA, Philippines — The government lost as much as P7. 7 billion due to the undervaluation of rice imports, with a farmer group urging the government to address the issue to help rice farmers.
The results revealed that common problems encountered by rice farmers were: high cost of inputs, low price of palay, lack of capital, labor problem, lack of postharvest facilities, pest and diseases and irrigation system.
As a complex carb, it is the primary source of energy for over half of the world's people. Depending on the strain of rice, it can contain decent amounts of fibre, protein, vitamin B, iron and manganese. This means it can play a vital role against malnutrition. In some cultures, rice is thrown at weddings.
One reason the Philippines has trouble providing enough rice for itself is that it has failed to adopt the advanced production methods that other Southeast Asian nations use. This failure means it costs more to farm rice in the country than elsewhere in the region.
That's because we, Filipinos have different preferences when it comes to rice. Some like it loose and fluffy (buhaghag), others like it gooey and very sticky(malata) , and still a lot others like it in between.
Rice is the source of one-fifth of all the calories consumed by the world's population. Rice forms the backbone of millions of people's diets. Rice has been a key player in historical events and a vital element of too many food cultures to name.
Kamayan, or the act of eating food with your hands, is not only a practical way of eating your food (as it eliminates the need to clean spoons and forks), but also a good way of bonding with the locals. It breaks social boundaries, and is seen by most Filipinos as a better way of enjoying your food.
Rice is the most easily digestible grain. In fact, most of the cereals and grains are difficult for the body to digest. All the grains have an outer coating that is rich in phytic acid, which makes it very difficult to digest and only polished rice is free from this outer coating making it a healthy option to go for!
Native fruits, root crops, nuts and vegetables were eaten in the islands such as mango, Pili Nuts, Coconut, ginger etc. Meat and seafood was eaten all over the islands while certain Muslim groups did not consume the likes of pork and shellfish.
The Department is the government agency responsible for the promotion of agricultural development by providing the policy framework, public investments, and support services needed for domestic and export-oriented business enterprises.
However, agricultural sector has been beset with persistent challenges resulting in low farm incomes, low rural employment, lack of food security, and meager agricultural competitiveness.
The farmers' rights are the following: (1) support to the price program; (2) ensure market; (3) be covered with social security; (4) avail of credit system at minimal interest rates and minimum collateral requirements; (5) avail of farm inputs and services; (6) be heard and represented in the government; (7) be updated ...
Value of Production in Agriculture and Fisheries Declined by -1.0 Percent in the Fourth Quarter of 2022. In the fourth quarter of 2022, value of production in agriculture and fisheries at constant 2018 prices decreased by -1.0 percent.
The DA currently implements six banner programs, namely, rice, corn, high value crops, livestock, fisheries and organic agriculture in its' bid to boost national production of these commodities.
Guided by the principles of the Agrikulturang Pilipino (Agri-Pinoy) framework, the National Rice Program integrates government initiatives and interventions for the agriculture sector, namely: food security and self-sufficiency, sustainable resource management, support services from farm to table, and broad-based local ...
The lack of farmworkers continues to be U.S. agriculture's most frustrating challenge. With rising wage rates and record usage of the H-2A visa program, labor shortages must be addressed.
Soil quality, water quality, climate, and terrain are just a few of the environmental issues that may impact profits and productivity for farmers in any given growing season.
In the Philippines, lands are either public domain (state-owned) or privately owned. Under the 1987 Constitution, only public agricultural lands may be leased up to 1000 hectares to private corporations.
Exemption from Income Tax – All Accredited Farmers and Fisherfolk Enterprises may be exempt from income tax on income derived from the enterprise provided they are registered as Barangay Micro-Business Enterprises (BMBEs).
According to officials, techniques such as vertical farming, micropropagation, cryopreservation and hydroponics will be practised, with the aim of developing technology to boost crop production and reduce the need for manual labour.
Introduction: My name is The Hon. Margery Christiansen, I am a bright, adorable, precious, inexpensive, gorgeous, comfortable, happy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
