NFA-7 Urges LCEs to Campaign Against Rice Wastage

(PIA) – The National Food Authority (NFA-7) in the region called on local chief executives to step up campaign to minimize rice wastage.

In a Kapihan sa PIA recently, NFA-7 information officer Agnes Militante said Filipinos as a whole wastes around P10B worth of rice every year. Every individual she added wastes an average of two tablespoons of rice daily and it could add up to 3.3 kilogram a year.

“If we compute it with the 100 million population, it is P27M daily and rice wastage could go up to 330,000 metric tons every year,” Militante said.

In terms of production, Cheryl de la Victoria, information officer of the Department of Agriculture (DA-7) said Central Visayas is 32 percent rice sufficient, except for Bohol Province which is 102 percent rice sufficient, the rest of the Provinces Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor are more than 50 percent short, she added.

For this month both DA and NFA officials are encouraging the City and Municipal Mayors to come up with their own initiatives in becoming a “Food Guardian” which is a program of the agriculture sector launched three years ago with the tagline “Be Riceponsible Campaign.”

“We cannot do anything if we don’t have the support of the Local Chief Executives, or they can also come up with their own legislation,” Militante said.

Cebu City accordingly came up with a Resolution mandating food outlets to serve half cup of rice.

Other activities in the National Rice Campaign include Zumba and Run for Rice and bringing the campaign to the educators and schools.

An average Filipino eats around 4 ½ cups of rice daily. (mbcn/fcc/PIA7-Cebu)