Banaue Rice Terraces, Ifugao, Philippines

Most of the farmers in Ifugao still prefer to use traditional rice, one of the most popular variety is "Tinawon" with red and white grains. Usually, traditional rice tastes and smells good and are usually grown organically. But unfortunately some of the farmer's varieties are being lost because they are being displaced by high yielding improved cultivars (like hybrids) but usually requires higher inputs like fertilizers and chemicals to attain its potential yield. Altough I have nothing against this improved varieties, if they can help farmers earn more profit why not. But I think we also need to take care of our farmer's varieties since they can be a good source of desirable genes for breeding better varieties in the future. It's a good thing we have PhilRice and IRRI to help us in conserving these varieties in genebanks for us and our future generations...