Rice from Banawe Terraces may be rare but should not be expensive

The rarity of indigenous rice from the Cordillera’s rice terraces should make it expensive, but agriculture officials want to make sure.

Government agriculturists are now on a mission to assess the real value of the so-called heirloom rice produced on the terraces and help farmers who still grow them earn more, said Marilyn Sta. Catalina, Cordillera agriculture director.

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Sta. Catalina said some indigenous varieties sell for as much as P100 per kilogram because they are hard to find.

But “tinawon,” another rare variety planted and harvested only once a year in the Ifugao rice terraces, sells for P55 per kg to traders for export, said Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr.

He said while an exporter, Rice Inc., opened the market for indigenous Cordillera rice, prices for heirloom rice should match the value given the Ifugao rice terraces by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). Unesco listed the terraces in 1995 as a World Heritage Site.

Sta. Catalina said because of the terraces’ international stature, there must be a brand market for rice grown there.

Creating brands for Ifugao’s tinawon and Kalinga’s “unoy” rice would require a long process and a substantial government investment for them to take off in commercial markets, she said.

Farmers, she said, would also have to decide which of the Cordillera’s 300 indigenous rice varieties they would want to plant.

“The value of the rice is that it was grown using ancient farm knowledge,” she said.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) picked the Ifugao rice terraces in 2004 as a globally important agricultural heritage system (Giahs), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been implementing a Giahs conservation and management program in Hungduan town since 2008.

The Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (Sitmo) said the terrace ecosystem has sustained these farms for thousands of years.

The community divides land according to use and altitude—preserving a watershed forest blanketing the peak and the middle sections of the mountain, and allowing timber gathering only on “muyung” (clan woodlots) located near the settlement areas and the “payoh” (terraced farm lots).

Sitmo said farming also follows a ritual cycle that is attuned to the weather, as well as periods when pests are inactive. - (Inquirer Northern Luzon / by Vincent Cabreza)

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