Eastern Visayas joins brown rice campaign challenge

TACLOBAN CITY, Oct. 11 (PNA) -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) regional office here has asked Eastern Visayas residents to join the brown rice promotion drive in a bid to raise public awareness on the benefits of this staple food variety

Known as #BROWN4good challenge, the campaign seeks to promote the four benefits of brown rice - its goodness to the country, to the body, to the farmers and to the least fortunate.

According to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), brown rice is the unpolished or dehulled rice. Any rice variety including black, red, or other pigmented rice can be converted into brown rice.

"Eating brown rice will help farmers raise their income; the country to be a rice self-sufficient one; the body to be more healthy; and the less fortunate because for every one post, one cup of rice will be donated to them," said Francisco Rosaroso, the farm department’s regional information officer.

One of the campaign's call is to post photos in social networking sites of brown rice meal and caption it with “#BROWN4good” and “#Region8”. Social media users are challenged to ask their friends to do the same.

"One million hash tags from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined are equals to 3.5 million cups of brown rice to be donated to local charities," Rosaroso told PNA.

Eastern Visayas brown rice output, according to DA is very negligible.

Brown rice is not yet widely available in the markets. It is only displayed in supermarkets at higher prices. A pack of 800 grams costs PHP73 in grocery stores.

The #BROWN4good campaign is one of the agency's efforts to answer the low supply and demand issues.

Despite of the inadequacy and high price, some consumers prefer to consume brown rice, citing its health benefits.

"Because of the advertisements regarding brown rice, I started to eat brown rice and I noticed that my bowel movement is regular now," Eva Areglado, a brown rice consumer said.

She noted that as diabetic patient, brown rice also helps lower her blood sugar level.

The regional campaign has kicked off on August 31. Other regions in the country also accepted the challenge. (PNA)

FPV/SQM/DARA PEARL DACUYAN, LNU INTERN/EGR