By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
LAOAG CITY—The mecca of rice
in Ilocos Norte has been attracting farmers and students as well.
Ask a 10-year-old Gian Abad,
a Grade V pupil of Shamrock Elementary School in Laoag City what are the tools
to harvest rice and he may stare at you with a blank look on his face.
As a city boy, he regularly
consumes rice at least three times a day but he may not have been to the rice
fields or witnessed what is was like to be planting or harvesting rice under
the scorching heat of the sun.
With the continuing farm
modernization, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Batac City
established a rice museum where young learners can go to appreciate the culture
of this staple food for Filipinos.
The rice museum located at
the lower ground floor of PhilRice building is the first of its kind rice
museum in the province that houses rice-based farming systems, involving pieces
of material culture, from the past and present and highlights the culture of
rice farmers all over country.
It also features different
information and technologies in rice production with audio visual presentation.
Specifically, the centerpiece
of the museum is the Ifugao rice culture which is described as the best
representation of rice culture in the country with its backdrop of the rice
terraces and farm tools and equipment, like the batawel (for carrying the
harvest), galud (for digging), panuptop (taking down soil from the terraces),
hukikud (dibbles), ganulang (for harvesting), luhung and lalu (mortar and
pestle), and heirloom rice harvests, among others.
The museum also has sections
for lowland farming that shows plow and harrow, singkaw (yoke), and tsako among
others; modern farming, biodiversity that depicts the diverse life forms in the
rice fields, anatomy of rice kernel, rice ecosystem, rice art, rice food, rice
life, rice environment, and rice technologies, among others.
According to Dr. Reynaldo C.
Castro, chief science research specialist of PhilRice-Batac, he said hundreds
of farmers and students had visited the museum for learning.
“The rice museum aims to show
the importance of rice to Filipinos. The collected artifacts and farm
implements present the evolution of rice technology over the last 2,000 years,”
Castro said.
Open from Mondays to Fridays,
Mr. Castro said the rice museum is open to all interested groups and
individuals to promote a deeper appreciation of what agriculture means as the
backbone of the economy.
In a study, Filipino farmers
are aging and the average age in Ilocos Norte is aged 58.
It is in this premise that
local government units, research agencies and other support groups are enticing
the young to engage themselves in all aspects of agriculture to produce a new
wave of farmers to sustain growth and development.
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