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Programs and Activities
Brown Rice Campaign
The promotional campaign is being carried out at both the supply and demand ends-at local governments, hospitals, hotels, civic associations, and at the national level through nutritional and other relevant organizations. Articles on Brown Rice:
Rice Garden
The first Rice Garden was established in 2001 at the Luneta Park in the Center of Manila, the Capital of the Philippines. It is a joint operation between the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the Bureau of Plant Industry, the National Parks Development Committee, and the Asia Rice Foundation. Article on the Rice Garden:
The influence of rice on the Asian way of life was focused on Hats Off to Asian Rice Farmers Exhibit at IRRI Riceworld. Farmers' hats were displayed to focus on rice farmers' distinctive culture, represented by the material and style used in making the hats.
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In August 2000, ARF-Phils initiated the campaign to revive the eating of Brown Rice (BR) in the Philippines. Compared to polished rice, BR has more vitamin B complex, higher fiber content and antioxidants, and consumes 60% less energy to produce (i.e., uses less milling time) and has 10% higher milling recovery.
Rice is an integral part of the Philippine cultural heritage and roots. As societies become affluent, they are slowly becoming detached to rice. This resulted to an increasing number of Filipinos growing old not knowing how our farmers grow rice or, worse, how a rice plant looks like. To promote national consciousness and appreciation of the values of rice and rice farmers, Rice Gardens will be established primarily in urban areas. 
So far two national museums have put up Rice Exhibits. These are the National Museum of the Philippines and the Museo Pambata (Children's Museum), both are located within the vicinity of the Luneta Park. Both exhibits will be strengthened with year-round activities - to form a part of their contributions to the celebration of the International Year of Rice in 2004.
In collaboration with the National Museum, the ARF-Philippines with support from ARF Regional, organized a symposium on "Rice in the Seven Arts" on February 20-21, 2003. This Symposium recognized that rice is not only about science, food, nutrition and economics. In the rice growing and rice consuming countries like the Philippines, this most important crop is interwoven into the national identity, heritage and way of life. Expressions of this are found in the various art forms in the culture of the people.
Yields in farmers' fields have in recent years declined, casting doubts on the ability of sustaining the productivity of intensive rice culture. ARF-Philippines, PhilRice, the province of Nueva Ecija, NGOs and IRRI initiated
in May 2003 a collaborative field on deploying genetic diversity to increase productivity of intensive rice culture at Muñoz, Nueva Ecija and Candelaria, Quezon, doing field trials on biodiversity applications to rice production at 2 locations: Muñoz, Nueva Ecija and Candelaria, Quezon. The objective of this multilocation project is to achieve sustainable increase in rice yield through the use of genetic diversity. This on-farm project will evaluate the effectiveness of genetic deployment scheme i.e. interplanting traditional variety and high yielding variety. These trials will be undertaken for 2 cropping seasons. The project is funded by the Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR).