Rice is a staple food for more than 3.5 billion people around the world. Sustainable rice production plays a significant role in ensuring food security for many communities. Carp living with rice plants in a co-culture experiment. (Photo from Lufeng Zhao) However, like many other monoculture...
The Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 2 (Cagayan Valley) is investigating the illegal sale of hybrid rice seeds that are part of the government’s seed distribution program. DA-RFO 2 Executive Director Narciso A. Edillo said they are coordinating with the National Bureau of...
A heated verbal exchange ensued between Senators Cynthia Villar and Raffy Tulfo when the latter raised the topic of private developers converting farmlands into residential and commercial spaces during the Senate’s deliberations on the proposed 2023 national budget. It was Tulfo who raised the...
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. declared that the government is nearing its goal to bring down the price of rice in the Philippines to P20. President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo by Noel Pabalate) "Palapit na tayo dun sa aking pangarap na mag P20 pero dahan dahan lang (We are...
This idyllic town nestled in the ‘Vietnamese Alps’ has until lately been beyond reach, except to the most intrepid of travelers THE ROOFTOP OF INDOCHINA Above the clouds on the Fansipan summit, the highest peak in all of Indochina I might have been in Grasse on the scent of Jean-Baptiste...
As the government ramps up its campaign against sugar hoarders and profiteers, a warehouse in Deparo, Caloocan was raided by agents of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Monday, August 22. Deparo, Caloocan warehouse (Screenshots taken from videos provided by the Office of the Press Secretary) In a...
DAGUPAN CITY – Five kilos of rice were given to the first 100 residents of Barangay Salisay here who availed of Covid-19 vaccines Thursday, August 11. FIVE kilos of rice were given to Barangay Salisay folk who availed of Covid-19 vaccine. (Dagupan CIO photo) The vaccines were administered at...
“Our Land, Our Food, Our Rice! Reject Golden Rice!” is an outcry of countless farmers and concerned consumers over the recent approval of Golden Rice’s application for varietal registration by the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC) and DA’s issuance of a biosafety permit for Golden Rice...
Senator Robinhood "Robin" Padilla is pushing for scholarship and health services for farmer-beneficiaries of the Rice Tariffication Act, also known as Republic Act (RA) 11203. In Senate Bill (SB) 231, which he filed, Padilla also sought to increase the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF)...
An online solidarity action was held by various peasant groups in the Philippines to solidify their resistance against the Golden Rice project. Masipag farmers reject Golden Rice (Photo courtesy of Masipag Visayas / Facebook) Filipino farmers, on Monday, Aug. 8, launched an online solidarity action...
The Philippines is home to a wide variety of crops and livestock, many of them disappearing from cultivation due to modernization. A handful of them are listed in the Ark of Taste, the Slow Food Movement’s catalog of endangered foods from across the globe. There are currently 65 Filipino food...
A pro-administration senator has said that pricing rice at P20 per kilo is not possible--at least, not yet. Senator Cynthia A. Villar, who retained her chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform Committee in the current 19th Congress, explained that the price of palay or...
