To save on rice: Eat camote for breakfast

MANILA, Philippines - As a solution to the “perennial” rice shortage the country is facing, a rural banker is promoting the serving of camote, instead of rice, on breakfast tables.

Roberto Alingog, president of PR Bank based in Cauayan, Isabela, who this writer met in Saigon, Vietnam recently, said that reduction in rice consumption would be tremendous if Filipinos eat camote once a day.

“They can take it during breakfast or lunch or dinner, whichever suits them best,” the banker who is a self-confessed camote beakfast-eater said.

He pointed out that instead of importing rice, the government should opt for reduction in consumption. “Apart from neutralizing the rice shortage, the government will save a lot of foreign exchange if importation is minimized or not availed of,” he said.

He said one-third of our traditional rice consumption is saved if Filipinos resort to “camote breakfast.”

The rice issue is currently hogging headlines and prime news spots on radio and television sparked by a report that the country’s national intelligence agency has considered the alleged looming rice crisis as a national security concern.   

The report was denied by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala who asserted that it was the handiwork of a rice cartel that stands to benefit under a rice crisis situation.

Alcala said the government does not intend to import any more rice this year.

Alingog raises camote in a section of the family’s eight-hectare farm in his hometown from where he sources their daily supply of the root crop for breakfast. Alingog says he shares some to neighbors and friends whom he had convinced to switch to camote during breakfast.

The businessman along with his family and a group of countryside bankers were in Vietnam on a business and social trip. This writer and six other journalists together with several business executives were also there as part of their prizes for winning in the Bright Leaf Journalism awards sponsored by Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp (PMFTC).

PMFTC executives in the tour were company president Chris Nelson, corporate affairs director Bayen Elero, corporate communications director lawyer Chita Herce and communications executives Elmer Mesina and Didet Danguilan.

Other journalists in the pack were university professor and STAR columnist Krip Yuson, Bulletin editor Zac Sarian, Bong Fabe of Business Mirror, Melpha Abello of Bulletin, and news photographers Andy Zapata (STAR) and Ev Espiritu (Inquirer). Joining the group were Isabel de Leon-Adao of Bulletin and Alex Vergara of Inquirer. 

Another northerner had earlier promoted the adoption of ‘saba’ (a banana variety) as rice alternative.

Dr. Agustin Molina Jr., regional coordinator for Asia and the Pacific of Bioversity International, an international reasearch and consultancy group of banana scientists based in Rome, said that ‘saba’ or ‘dippig’ in Ilocano is a popular staple food in African countries.

“If adopted in our country, saba will drastically reduce our dependence in rice as staple food and remove pressure on our palay production which is affected  by an escalating population,” Molina, a native of Santa, Ilocos Sur stressed.

‘Saba’ and camote are popular in the Philippines but not as rice alternatives. Cooked and fried with brown sugar, banana and camote cues are patronized as snack items which many Filipinos indulge with in-between meals.

As staple food, camote and saba are best if steamed or boiled.