NEGROS Occidental might often be called Sugarlandia, but sugar does not provide food security among Negrenses. Rice is still king as a staple food.
A staple food, or simply a staple, says the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, is a food that is eaten routinely and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and generally forming a significant proportion of the intake of other nutrients as well.
While the world has over 50,000 edible plants, the UN agency notes, just three of them, rice, corn, and wheat, provide 60 percent of the world’s food energy intake.
Sugar is no longer the province’s Achilles Heel where a sneeze causes Negros Occidental to catch a cold. Once touted as the sugar capital of the country, the Department of Agriculture (DA) conferred on Bago City as one of the 2017 Rice Achievers for its dedicated efforts to the rice industry.
Seven provinces and 15 cities and municipalities were recognized during the awarding ceremony on May 31 at the Philippine International Convention Center.
Let the province catch a cold and the local economy is in no danger of catching pneumonia. It’s no longer hobbled by the sugarcane monoculture.
Bago City Mayor Nicholas Yulo and City Agriculturist Carlito Indencia received the trophy and check amounting to P1 million as the cash prize from Senator Cynthia Villar and DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol together with officials from the National Irrigation Administration, Bureau of Soils and Water Management, and other DA bureaus and attached agencies.
Like a true Negrense, Indencia bragged that Bago was the lone local government unit in Western Visayas to be given the said award. “Bago has surpassed the national average yield for rice production, making it one of the awardees,” Indencia said.
According to the statistics of the City Agriculture Office, Bago remains to be the rice granary of the province as it was able to produce 4.20 tons per hectare of rice higher than the 4.01 metric tons per hectare in 2017, the minimum requirement set by DA for the said award. It also contributed 19.57 percent of the total rice production in the province.
Mayor Torres said, “Bago City takes pride in receiving an honor for the first time as one of the few LGUs in the country and the lone LGU in Western Visayas to be conferred with the 2017 Rice Achievers Awards.”
Whoa, Bago bested LGUs in Iloilo province, considered the rice granary of Western Visayas. Iloilo Province takes pride in being the “Food basket and Rice granary of Western Visayas.”
Congratulations, Bago City. You make Negrenses proud that you have strengthened our food security. (bqsanc@yahoo.com)