Consumption of Heirloom Rice in Ifugao

Abstract

The study aimed to document the consumption of heirloom rice in Ifugao. Specifically it intended to determine the socio-demographic profile of the consumers and non-consumers, the consumption practices of consumers towards heirloom rice, the number of consumers, the reasons for consuming and not consuming heirloom rice and the source of heirloom rice of the consumers in Ifugao. A total of 130 respondents were surveyed and interviewed in selected municipalities including Banaue, Lagawe, Hingyon and Kiangan, Ifugao. Result of the study revealed that majority of the consumers are adults, female, married, from Ifugao, college level/graduate, self-employed, with PhP5,000 or less monthly income and with six or more numbers of household members. Majority of the respondents are consumers. The factors that influence consumption of heirloom rice include the outstanding quality of the native rice, health benefits of the product, preferred by the family and the availability of the product in the area. While the reasons of the non-consumers the rice include high price, lack of farm, unavailability of the rice in the market, shifted to commercial farming and lack of family member to manage the rice farm. Moreover findings showed that among the consumers, majority produce the heirloom rice. For the buyers they buy it from rice producers. All the consumers consume non-glutinous and majority of them also consume glutinous rice. For non-glutinous rice they consume it as plain every meal but for glutinous rice, they consume it occasionally during snack time prepared as a snack or dessert and as wine. Further the consumption per week for both the type of heirloom rice is 1 to 10 kilograms.