Students to harvest rice at Rizal Park

MANILA, Philippines - Selected elementary pupils and high school students in Metro Manila will have the rare experience of harvesting palay at the Rizal Park in Manila on Nov. 18.

Yes, you read it right: It’s rice harvest time on the third Thursday of this month at the country’s premier park as part of the observance of National Rice Awareness Month (NRAM).

The STAR gathered that those who will be invited to the once-a-year activity include Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, and Batangas Rep. Mark Leandro Mendoza. Pangilinan and Mendoza head the Senate and House committees on agriculture and food, respectively.

The site of the ceremony is the 300-square meter Rice Garden, the first of its kind in the country. It was set up in 2001 to increase the public’s awareness, appreciation, and understanding of this staple food crop that has sustained generations of Filipinos.

The garden is a joint project of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice), DA-Bureau of Plant Industry, Philippine Commission for the New Century and the Millennium, Department of Tourism-National Parks Development Committee, and Asia Rice Foundation.

As it is, project implementers said “many Filipinos, especially city dwellers, grow old not knowing how rice is grown or, worse, how it looks like.”

The simulated terraced rice garden, which is open to the public, features actual modern (hybrid), inbred (ordinary) and traditional varieties at different growth phases, for different environments, and for various consumers’ needs and preferences.

The rice plots are tended all-year-round by DA-PhilRice, currently headed by Executive Director Ronilo Beronio.