Revitalized Indigenous Rice Entrepreneurs was conceived by a former US Peace Corps volunteer, who served in Kalinga 27 years ago



"[The Peace Corps member] spent a long time in [Kalinga] and has been looking for a way to help ease the poverty there," Garcia said.

Revitalized Indigenous Rice Entrepreneurs was conceived by a former US Peace Corps volunteer, who served in Kalinga 27 years ago

US opens market for Ifugao rice

First posted 03:07am (Mla time) Oct 06, 2005
By Vincent Cabreza
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the Oct. 6, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BAGUIO CITY -- Organic rice grown on the centuries-old rice terraces of Ifugao province and the paddies of Kalinga province will soon be on the dining tables of families in the United States.

A Cavite-based export firm has opened a market in the United States for indigenous rice varieties.

Victoria Garcia, chair of Revitalized Indigenous Rice Entrepreneurs Inc., shipped 720 kilograms of Kalinga and other rice varieties to Montana on Tuesday, after they passed US food and trade standards.

Garcia said the shipment opened a wide market for Ifugao's "tinawon" rice variety and Kalinga's "unoy," a highly priced red rice variety that is grown through traditional farming methods.

"We are filling the US demand for organic rice," she said.

[Excerpt]

Garcia said Revitalized Indigenous Rice Entrepreneurs was conceived by a former US Peace Corps volunteer, who served in Kalinga 27 years ago.

"[The Peace Corps member] spent a long time in [Kalinga] and has been looking for a way to help ease the poverty there," Garcia said.

"There are no questions about how organic the indigenous rice of the Cordillera really is. They plant without using modern fertilizers," she said.

It is still not clear how the demand in the United States for rice indigenous to Ifugao and Kalinga will affect the government's campaign to replace traditional rice with hybrid rice varieties.

Kalinga tested a hybrid rice, designed by Chinese scientist Yuen Long Ping, producing 7.2 tons per hectare between 2002 and 2003. The output topped those of other farm testing areas in the country.

Garcia said the company decided to sell tinawon from Ifugao's rice terraces to help local governments guarantee farmers a market for their product as they introduced indigenous measures to stabilize the centuries-old terraces.

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