Filipinos eating more rice than ever

SISON, Pangasinan--Did you know that each Filipino now eats at least two and a half cavans of rice every year?

Latest data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed that in 2007, the per capita rice consumption in the country was 126.84 kilograms (50 kg is equal to one cavan).

The figure is 31 percent higher than the 97.05 kg or a little less than two cavans per capita consumption of the staple food 10 years ago.

On a daily basis, each Filipino now eats at least 347 grams of rice.

“To me, this is quite high because we now have several fast food chains and other food for snacks,” said Cipriano Santiago, director of the Department of Agriculture in the Ilocos.

But he said this may be because Filipino snacks are mostly rice-based, such as rice cakes and arroz caldo (chicken porridge).

The high per capita rice consumption, he said, is one of the reasons the Philippines continues to import rice.

“Based on our data, the whole nation has a rice [production] deficiency of 8 to 10 percent. That’s why we import,” he said. “Now, if our per capita consumption continues to increase, our [rice production] deficiency will also increase.”

Santiago said he was not stopping people from eating rice but the Department of Agriculture was focusing its efforts on increasing increase rice production.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who opened the Pangasinan Farmers’ Agri-Expo 2009 here recently, said the 2 percent annual population growth rate was also a factor why the country’s rice production was not always enough for everybody.

“Even if we have a bumper harvest, our population continues to grow. Every year, we have an additional 1.8 million people and our farms are not increasing in size,” Yap said.

He said for 30 years, the government did not invest in agriculture, especially in irrigation.

“We can feel this in Pangasinan. You have 178,000 hectares [of rice fields], but only 51 percent of it is irrigated,” Yap said.

Pangasinan is the country’s third-largest rice-producing province, next to Isabela and Nueva Ecija.

Yap said President Macapagal-Arroyo has directed him to fast track the implementation of agricultural infrastructure projects in the country to increase productivity.

He said the government released P300 million last year for the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project in Pangasinan. This year, he said the government is giving another P300 million for repairs of irrigation facilities.

He said the bidding for foreign development financing for the P11 billion re-regulating pond of the San Roque multipurpose dam project will be opened.

Once completed, some 34,500 hectares of rice fields in eastern Pangasinan will be irrigated.

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