Wednesday, April 02, 2008 Potatoes in lieu of rice By Jane Cadalig
IF THE impending rice shortage pushes through and hits its worst, Benguet farmer leader and an agriculture consultant offered a solution -- shift to potatoes.
Benguet Farmers Federation president Jose Andiso said potatoes, considered a vegetable to many Filipinos, could help solve the imminent rice shortage problem.
Andiso said potatoes, also among the main sources of carbohydrates, could be an alternative to rice. "If worse comes to worst, shifting to potato or even camote (sweet potato) can be an option. Although we are not praying this will happen," he said.
This view is shared by Dr. Elizabeth Verzola, the province's technical adviser for potato and ube production.
"It would be very interesting to convince our people not to rely too much on rice as their staple," she said.
Potato is one of the major agricultural commodities grown in Benguet. The province's 36,065 farmers produced 216,424.06 metric tons (MTs) of potatoes last year, based on data from the Provincial Agriculturist Office. The area planted to the commodity is 12,188.44 hectares.
Filipinos were bothered when the Department of Agriculture (DA) last month issued an advisory to all food establishments to cut down on their rice servings, to minimize wastage, due to perceived lack of supply.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since then started inspecting National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses to ensure there is sufficient supply of the staple. She also warned rice retailers not to engage in hoarding as they are on tight watch by the government.
Agriculture officials in the Cordillera said the region is not affected by the shortage of rice.
Recently, government signed an agreement with Vietnam to import 1.5 million MTs of rice from the foreign country.
