Q&A DR. EUFEMIO T. RASCO JR. Chair, Agricultural Sciences Division National Academy of Science and Technology
Rice in the Food Systems HANAH HAZEL MAVI B. MANALO
The United Nations Food Systems Summit aims to make food systems healthier, more sustainable, and equitable toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. To help us understand food systems, former DA-PhilRice Executive Director Dr. Eufemio T. Rasco Jr., now chair of the agricultural sciences division of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), was interviewed.
What is the food system and the agri-food system? We need to make a distinction between agriculture and food. Agriculture covers crops, livestock, and aqua products including microbes such as mushrooms and algae. It covers food, feed, as well as non-food industrial raw materials such as cotton, abaca, rubber, and some species of seaweeds. Some species function as food, feed, and industrial raw materials. For example, the rice endosperm is used as food but the rice hull is used as fuel, and rice bran is used as feed or industrial raw material. The rice endosperm is cooked as food after minimal processing (milled for immediate consumption) or further processed into flour and noodles. In this manner, rice is also a raw material for industrial food processing. To get a more holistic understanding of the challenge and opportunities of feeding society, it is ideal to look at food as a product of a system. The food system is a chain of interconnected materials, products, and services that primarily provide nutrition to consumers but perform equally important services, among which are providing livelihood and environmental stewardship. Materials include production inputs such as seed, fertilizers, machinery, and pesticides. They also include inputs in trading and marketing such as packaging 12
PHILRICE MAGAZINE | JUL-SEP 2021
materials. Product from the farmers’ viewpoint is the form that is sold; in rice, the main product sold by farmers is palay. Direct services in the food system cover production, processing, trading, and waste management. They also include technologies and policies. Ideally, the food system must be circular; materials and energy must be recycled into the system.
What is the role of the rice sector or industry in the food system? In the Philippines today, the rice industry dominates our farms and tables, and the food system in general. It uses up most of our irrigation water (70-80%), and farm land (at least 25%), labor and capital for farming. Among the poor, rice supplies as much as 80% of the food calories. How did our rice industry manage to dominate our food system? The answer is true for food grains in general, but among these major grains, rice happens to be the best adapted to our country’s tropical conditions. The basic truth is that food grains have the advantage of being easy to mass produce and store, and can also produce a diversity of marketable highvalue by-products. This is the main reason why food grains were dominant in food systems throughout history.
Considering the dominant role of the rice industry in our food system today, one cannot avoid associating it with the system’s dysfunctionalities. Rice farmers are among the poorest farmers. Rice production exacts very high environmental costs, and rice consumption exacts very high health costs to consumers. These scientific truths are documented in hundreds of peer-reviewed publications.
What is the relationship between rice security and the food system? It is misleading to equate food security with rice security. Rice is not the only food, and good food requires balance among various components. Considering the negative impacts of the rice industry on the farmers, consumers, and the environment, rice security in the context of present consumption and production trends may actually compromise longterm food security. However, rice farming in the context of diversified agriculture can contribute substantially to food security. Indeed, the best opportunity for farm diversification in the Philippines is in the rice farms. About 1/3 of the best farm lands are rice farms and about half of these are irrigated with access to good roads, and are distributed throughout the country. In addition, rice farmers enjoy the lion share of government support for agriculture in terms of subsidies and grants. Among these are free irrigation, machines, fertilizers, and seeds. The only factor lacking to make diversification happen in the scale needed to make an impact is a policy that a substantial (in contrast with the current token) part of this government support for the rice industry should be used for diversification of rice farms.
DA-PhilRice’s Palayamanan is a diversified and integrated rice-based farming system that produces rice and other crops, fish, and vegetables.
