If someone mentions the word meal, what comes into your mind? Definitely, the answer is rice and fish. Among the two, the most important is rice because you can have any viand aside from fish.
As the late epicurean Doreen Fernandez puts it: “If we did not have rice, our deepest comfort food, we would probably feel less Filipino.”
In a survey done for the World Bank, it was found that eighty-percent of all respondents consumed rice three or more times a day. Sixteen percent said they ate rice twice a day while only one percent said once. Most of those who ate rice thrice a day belonged to the middle class (81 percent) and the rich (79 percent).
“Rice is the staple food of Filipinos in most parts of the country, although corn also contributes 20 percent or more of caloric intake from cereals in parts of Visayas and Mindanao,” said the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute.
“For the country as a whole, rice accounts for 41 percent of total caloric intake and 31 percent of total protein intake.”
The country’s annual per capita rice consumption is 119 kilograms. Annual requirement to feed its growing population (with a rate of two percent per year) is expected to increase from 13.16 metric tons in 2010 to 13.72 metric tons in 2013.
This means that for the same period, according to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), rice production should increase from five percent in 2011 to 10 percent by 2013.
Rice production is augmented by importation to fill the requirement. During the time of the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the country imported 2.3 million metric tons of rice, “which was already a million metric tons more than the 1.3 million that we needed,” said President Benigno Aquino, Jr. in his second State of the Nation Address.
“How many years have we been over-importing rice?” the president asked. “Many Filipinos thought that there was nothing we could do about it.”
What was thought to be an impossible dream became a reality. In just a matter of one year, the country was able to cut down the rice shortage by almost half. “What was once an estimated yearly shortage of 1.3 million metric tons is down to 660,000 metric tons,” he said.
“Even with our buffer of 200,000 metric tons as contingency against natural calamities, it is still significantly less than what was once the norm.”
One possible way for the country to attain rice self-sufficiency is by switching from eating white rice to brown rice.
By doing so, Filipinos would become healthier and less sickly. A National Nutrition Survey done in 2008 showed that 26 out of every 100 pre-schoolers were malnourished. Twenty-five percent of children ages 6 to 10 years old were underweight.
“While Filipinos have been conditioned to eating rice, the required nourishment that the body needs to arrest malnutrition is inadequate because of the loss or reduction of important nutrients in the milling process,” observed a policy advocacy, which appeared in The PCARRD Monitor.
One of the viable answers to nutrient deficiency is the consumption of previously untapped type of partially milled rice known as brown rice (pinawa). Nutritionists claim rice contains carbohydrates, protein, minerals, vitamins, and fiber. Brown rice, with its healthful bran layers, contains all these nutrients naturally, plus fiber, oil and vitamin E.
The brown rice is a starchy endosperm that is covered with bran layers. The bran, which is about 10 percent of the rough rice weight, is removed in the whitening-polishing process. The broken grains are then separated.
A study conducted by PhilRice showed that brown rice production results in 75 percent milling recovery in contrast with 65 percent for white rice. Based on projected increases in hectarage and yield by PhilRice, increasing the milling recovery rate (MMR) from the current 63 percent to 75 percent translate to rice self sufficiency by 2013.
But there are some hurdles that need to be addressed. In contrast to white rice, manual labor is still needed to remove unhulled palay. Currently, the processing cost for brown rice is relatively expensive at P5-8 per kilogram compared with P2 per kilogram for white rice.
PhilRice has reportedly designed a prototype machine for brown rice milling calibrated at 75 percent MMR.
Selected brown rice producers are currently testing it. However, the capacity of the prototype is only 2-3 cavans (50 kilograms per cavan) per day.
“If brown rice will be promoted for wider consumption, existing milling facilities should be recalibrated to meet the requirement for production of brown rice,” said Albert P. Aquino, Anita G. Tidon, Ma. Theresa T. Bautista, Eriza C. Asilo, and Eduardo A. Genciagan, authors of the policy advocacy.
While brown rice is more healthful than white rice, it cannot be stored for a longer period of time. “Because of the oil-rich bran layer, brown rice has shorter shelf life and is susceptible to rancidity if stored at room temperature,” the authors noted. “Supply in the market may be difficult to sustain all year round.”
Possible solution: store the brown rice in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator or freezer. But business wise, this entails logistical difficultly particularly in handling and distribution.
Cooking brown rice takes longer than the white rice. “Brown rice does not easily absorb water,” the authors informed. “The bran restricts water intrusion to the kernel resulting in longer cooking time and harder cooked grains that are rough and nutty to chew.”
An option: Soak the rice for a few hours to soften the bran to facilitate easier water penetration.
“Embarking on a rice sufficiency program anchored on brown rice is hinged on two major challenges,” the authors contend. “First, the average Filipino’s acceptance of and preference for brown in lieu of white rice, and second, technological solutions to address grain quality and bulk milling.”
Filipinos have been eating rice since time immemorial. The world-famous Ifugao Rice Terraces is a living testimony to that. In his chronicle, First Voyage Around the World, Pigafetta wrote that the salty meal of early Filipinos was balanced by rice, a bland background for the main dish.
But Filipinos are not the only people in the world that eat rice. In fact, rice is the principal food for over 60 percent of mankind, IRRI claims. In Asia alone, about 3 billion people depend on rice to survive.
“Rice is the one thing that truly defines Asia,” said former IRRI Director-General Dr Ronald Cantrell. In China and Korea, where elders recall times when food was hard to come by, some still greet each other with the question, “Have you had your rice today?”
