Swapping varieties is a common practice among rice farmers in Anilao, Iloilo. Every time farmers would hear of a neighbor’s good yield, they would excitedly ask for some seeds to try hoping that they could also enjoy a handsome harvest. Edgar Belago, 61, used to cling to this practice. For more than a decade now, Edgar and his family had been renting and tending a one-hectare farm beside their house […]

The Golden Rice research is fueled by the passion to help millions of children and pregnant and nursing mothers who are suffering from vitamin A deficiency (VAD), a very pervasive and persistent public health problem in the country. The 2013 Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) survey reported that there are 2.1 million vitamin A deficient children (ages 6 months to 5 years old) in the Philippines. This figure is […]

The PhilRice community deeply mourns the passing away of Dr. Gelia Tagumpay Castillo, 89, National Scientist and longest-serving trustee of the Institute. She succumbed to acute respiratory failure on August 5. Her ashes now rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Ma’am Gelia dedicated her life to the service of Filipino farmers as a rural sociologist. She was in the Board of Trustees of PhilRice since December 1986 and served […]