Help Reduce Philippines' Food Wheat Import

The government is eyeing the use of 'uraro' as a potential wheat flour substitute to help reduce Philippines' food wheat import amounting to more than $200 million yearly.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking into the expansion potential of arrowroot, popularly known as 'uraro,' even as a unique community participation technique has raised yield of 'uraro' tubers.

This is by an average of by 100 percent from four metric tons (MT) per hectare to eight MT per hectare in a pilot program of DA's Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) in Catanuan, Quezon.

'Uraro' thrives anywhere in the country for as long as there's enough moisture. With our program to raise farmers' "sense of ownership" in the project, we're able to help them realize that agriculture can be a lucrative business," said Rosemarie Bautista-Olfato, Department of Agriculture (DA) - Southern Tagalog Integrated Agricultural Research Center (STIARC) assistant manager for technical programs.

The use of organic fertilizer was one of the major interventions of government in raising arrowroot production.

At present, Catanuan's 'uraro' produces only starch. However, with processing interventions, it will subsequently produce flour. The starch is now branded in the market as 'Catanuan's All Natural Arrowroot Starch".

The Philippines has long been in a search for food and wheat-based flour substitutes that may help reduce the country's dependence on food wheat importation. Among these potential alternates are corn flour used in pan de sal, pigeonpea flour used in noodles and pasta, squash flour used in Food and Nutrition Research Institute's (FNRI) 'yellow pan de sal.'

Over the long term, government may also look into 'uraro' flour's use as bread and pastry which are the major food products consumed from wheat flour.