Written by the Web Team
Philippine Rice Research Institute, the country’s lead in rice science and development, had concerted its development initiatives under the recently launched Rural Transformation Movement.
Operationalizing within two major campaigns, Gusto naming milyonaryo kayo and Be RICEponsible, the movement aims to change tillers’ behavior on farm enterprise and intensify Filipino’s commitment in helping the country produce enough rice.
Dr. Eduardo Jimmy Quilang, PhilRice deputy executive director for development, said that the Rural Transformation Movement will also expand farmers’ access on technologies that are sustainable and ecologically-efficient.
Quilang said that in the Gusto naming milyonaryo kayo campaign, farmers are encouraged to optimize farm space and time through crop diversification in which agri-business enterprises will be integrated to rice farming. The institute’s nine stations will serve as a service provider to help farmers establish farm enterprises.
The Be RICEponsible campaign, an offshoot of the National Year of Rice 2013, aims to heighten public’s participation in promoting the call for every Filipino to be “RICEponsible or rice responsible.”
Hazel Antonio, RICEponsible campaign director, said the initiative appeals to rice consumers not to waste rice, to eat brown rice and other staples, and to value the hardwork of the farmers.
Globally, the Rural Transformation Movement helps in “enhancing the prospects for development in much of the world.”
Bruno Losch, Sandrine Freguin-Gresh, and Eric White, authors of Rural transformation and late developing countries in a globalizing world said that despite continued urbanization, 2.8 billion people will continue to live in rural areas in 2050.
“Rural populations will remain massive and that these populations will depend on agriculture as their core activity and main source of livelihood,” they said.
In the Philippines, the Rural Transformation Movement supports the social contract that Pres. Benigno Aquino III made to the Filipinos, highlighting poverty alleviation, food security, higher income, climate change resilience, and employment creation.
