RICEponsible float.  The National Year of Rice (NYR 2013) float won 2nd place during this year`s Panagbenga or the 18th Baguio Flower Festival celebrations and created awareness on the public`s role in achieving rice self-sufficiency. Beating other 18 competing floats, the NYR 2013 float featured the Panatang Makapalay, rice varieties grown in the Cordillera, and other rice alternatives such as root crops.  Cordillera has a rice self-sufficiency level of 119 […]

Written by the Web Team   A group of indigenous peoples in Occidental Mindoro will benefit from the Farmers` Field Day recently conducted by the local government of the province and Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). Comprising 30 percent of the total population of the province, the more than 150 Mangyan farmers came from Ulanguan, Banganay, and Sili. The field day highlighted the varietal trial of eight different rice varieties, […]

Written by the Web Team   Reaching for the gold. The Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA), an information and communication technology (ICT)-based cum extension program led by PhilRice,  was recognized by the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND), a non-profit Arab region development organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. OpAPA is the recipient of the 2010 International  Prize for Pioneering Human Development Projects under the Government Category and was […]

Written by the Web Team   An official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the National Year of Rice (NYR) 2013 must go beyond public’s commitment to help the country meet rice self-sufficiency. In his commitment message during the recent NYR 2013’s National Commitment Day at  Liwasang Aurora of the Quezon Memorial Circle, undersecretary for field operations Joel Rudinas said NYR 2013 is “everybody’s devotion.” NYR 2013 is advocacy […]

Written by the Web Team   An hour for rice, for the country. The Department of Agriculture (DA) led a one-hour national commitment ceremony to reaffirm its support to the country`s rice self-sufficiency bid and to create public awareness on the National Year of Rice2013 (NYR), Feb. 11. At the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the country’s lead agency in rice research and development, hundreds of its staff allotted an […]

Written by the Web Team   The Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Unit 5 (DA-RFU 5) together with the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) have completed two seasons of multi-location field trials of Golden Rice in Camarines Sur. Golden Rice is a new type of rice that contains beta carotene, a source of vitamin A. These field trials form part of the Golden Rice project that the International Rice […]

Written by the Web Team   Dr. Roel R. Suralta, one of the country`s pioneering researchers in root studies based in Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), was conferred Scientist I by the Philippine Scientific Career Council (PSCC). Suralta was given the rank for publishing eight papers in the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)-indexed plant science journals and paper presentations in international and local scientific conferences. His papers highlight adaptive root […]

Written by the Web Team   Increased tie-ups with international firms are expected with the conferment of two engineers from the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) as new members of the ASEAN Engineering Register (AER). Established in 2001, AER is a trade register that provides complete database of practicing engineers within the ASEAN member-countries. Dr. Caesar Joventino M. Tado, PhilRice director for administration and one of the new members, said […]

Written by the Web Team   Here’s good news to our local rice-eating comrades: Philippine rice is arsenic-safe. “Unlike some 60 rices and rice products in the US that the Food and Drug Administration reported to contain cancer-causing arsenic, locally grown rice varieties are safe from it,” said PhilRice chemist Joy Bartolome Duldulao. Our local rices are safe as our irrigation water is arsenic-free. Arsenic is a naturally occurring metal […]

Written by the Web Team   More than a thousand farmer-leaders showed their support to the National Year of Rice (NYR) 2013, an advocacy campaign to help achieve rice self-sufficiency, during the National Convention of Food Staples Producers held at Manila Hotel, Dec. 14. In their platform of action and advocacy, members of rural-based organizations, small water impounding systems, and irrigators’ associations, crafted activities that will help promote NYR 2013 […]