In Celebration of the 54th Anniversary of the National Food Authority* (September 26, 1972-2026)
NFA Grains Industry Museum
Pride of the Filipino Farmer
NFA Regional Office Compound, Cabanatuan City, NE
Dr Abe V Rotor
Retired Director NFA
It features historical dioramas depicting President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Imelda Marcos, Cabinet members, the Masagana 99 program, Cordillera rice terrace culture, and the agrarian reform transition. The museum displays traditional farming implements, primitive tools, various regional designs of stone mortars and pestles for dehusking palay, native raincoats, and old transport sleds. The museum is situated inside the NFA compound in Cabanatuan City, open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (closed weekends).
*The National Food Authority was created through Presidential Decree No. 4 dated September 26, 1972, under the name National Grains Authority, (NGA) by President Ferdinand Marcos
Grains Industry Museum of the National Food Authority features in a diorama President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Imelda Marcos, Secretary Arturo Tanco, then NGA Administrator Jesus T Tanchanco, Cabinet members and guests.
The re-opening of the museum signifies the revival of the original objectives of the museum, which the author envisioned and pursued as its first curator in the early 1980s.
Featured in the Grains, official publication of the National Food Authority, the NFA Grains Industry Museum with address at the Regional Office in Cabanatuan City (NE) is now inviting students, scholars, researchers, and ordinary folks, even while restoration is on-going.
The feature story is quoted in part, as follows: (December 2016 Vol. 44, No. 4), written by Ms Lina G Reyes and Ms Josephine C Bacungan),
"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains . It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape. It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it. But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.)
"Old farm tools and artifacts had been sitting quietly, gathering dust at the dilapidated museum of the Central Luzon Regional office in Cabanatuan City. National Food Authority Grains Industry Museum was a brainchild of then NFA Extension Director Abercio V Rotor with a vision to highlight the evolution of the rice industry through various images on production, post-harvest activities, processing, storage and marketing /distribution of rice and other grains . It was intended to serve as NFA's contribution to the preservation of cultural traditions particularly in the agricultural landscape. It operated for sometime but was closed down due to lack of funds and trained personnel to maintain it. But thanks to he history-loving team of Director Amadeo de Guzman and Assistant Regional Director Serafin Manalili, and then Asst Director Mar Alvarez, et al ... "(the whole staff of the NFA regional and NFA provincial offices.)
Rare Artifacts
Operated by hand this native rice mill made of wood and bamboo separates the husk from the grain, leaving the grain intact with its bran.
Brown rice or pinawa dehusker made of bamboo and hardened earth with hardwood grinder displayed at the former Farmers' Museum of the National Food Authority in Cabanatuan City.c 1981
The bran contains minerals, vitamins, oil, and digestible fiber which conventional rice mills removed during polishing. Polishing removes the bran leaving the grain white and polished. In the process, much of the grains is broken, particularly the defective and immature ones chalky and powdery. It is the bran that gives the nutritious tiki-tiki which is extracted in the final boiling stage in cooking rice. Tiki-tiki was developed by a Filipino scientist, Dr. Manuel Zamora, a cheap and practical source of infant food supplement which saved thousands of babies during the second World War. It was later popularized as United Tiki-tiki. . 
Biggest wooden harrow (suyod) with a span of two meters, more than twice the size of a typical harrow for upland farming. The harrow is of two designs and make. One with iron pegs (left) is used on wet paddy. It serves as harrow and leveler. The second is made of bamboo with natural and embedded pegs used as harrow for the upland.
Author demonstrates a rare wooden planter with a sliding wooden block at the middle. The block creates a tic-tac sound to let know the worker is busy on the job, while the deep sound warns birds and rodents to keep away from the newly planted seeds. The block vibrates the stake shaking off clinging soil and dirt before it is thrust to make the next hole. Whoever put this mechanism into multiple and unified uses must be a true genius. At the background (above) are naturally shaped hame* made of bamboo. At the foreground is the mould (cross section) showing the formed hame. The process involved is simple. The mould is placed atop an emerging shoot. The shoot grows through the mould and grows to maturity. One or two years after, the bamboo is cut with the mould, and cured and seasoned for durability all in the natural way. (Hame is a curved harness that fits over the nape of a draft animal like carabao and bullock. Hame for the horse is made of two wooden pieces, padded and clamped together around its neck.)
Native raincoats made of leaves of anahaw (Livistona rotundifolia), cowhide, and woven bamboo slats, with matching headgears likewise made of native materials. Foreground: Sleds, one made of bamboo (left) and the other of wood.
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All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.
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The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread to many parts of the world. The commonality of inventions is more on function, rather than scientific explanation, the latter serving as basis in improvement and diversification.
Rice Industry Showcase
The Farmers' Museum of the then National Grains Authority, now National Food Authority, was put up in response to the administration's thrust in food self-sufficiency. It was during the time the country gave emphasis on developing cultural pride as a nation and people, as evidenced by the expansion of the National Museum, the putting up of the Philippine Convention Center, and the National Art Center on Mt Makiling, among others, during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E Marcos. The Farmers' Museum occupied the right wing of the Regional NFA Building in Cabanatuan City for two decades, until it closed down. It was once a pride of the agency, the centerpiece of visitation by foreign dignitaries, convention participants, tourists, professors and students, and most especially farmers who found the museum not only as a showcase of the agricultural industry, but as a hallmark of their being the "backbone of the nation." - AV Rotor
There are six dioramas, four of these are shown in these old photographs. A wall mural meets the visitor on entering the museum. Indigenous farm tools and implements are lined on the foreground. The dioramas are grouped at the center of the cubicles.
Rice Industry Dioramas
One of the six dioramas, Rice farming on the Banaue rice terraces
All over the world there are similarities, based on a general pattern, save variations for ease and comfort in usage, which we call today ergonomics, Thus primitive farmers were the founders of this new science. Pride in the farmer can be read on face on discovering these simple tools displayed in the museum.
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These sets of mortar and pestle in different designs came from different regions of the country, principally for dehusking palay into rice, and making rice flour. Other uses include cracking beans such as mungo, and grinding corn into grits and bran.
Photo below was taken just after the inauguration of the Museum (1982). The author (left) shows new collection to Dr Romualdo M del Rosario (in barong), deputy director of the National Museum, who helped in setting up the museum.
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The ingenuity at the grassroots cannot be underestimated. Farmers' technology developed with the birth of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent thousands of years ago, and spread to many parts of the world. The commonality of inventions is more on function, rather than scientific explanation, the latter serving as basis in improvement and diversification.
Rice Industry Showcase
The Farmers' Museum of the then National Grains Authority, now National Food Authority, was put up in response to the administration's thrust in food self-sufficiency. It was during the time the country gave emphasis on developing cultural pride as a nation and people, as evidenced by the expansion of the National Museum, the putting up of the Philippine Convention Center, and the National Art Center on Mt Makiling, among others, during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E Marcos. The Farmers' Museum occupied the right wing of the Regional NFA Building in Cabanatuan City for two decades, until it closed down. It was once a pride of the agency, the centerpiece of visitation by foreign dignitaries, convention participants, tourists, professors and students, and most especially farmers who found the museum not only as a showcase of the agricultural industry, but as a hallmark of their being the "backbone of the nation." - AV Rotor
There are six dioramas, four of these are shown in these old photographs. A wall mural meets the visitor on entering the museum. Indigenous farm tools and implements are lined on the foreground. The dioramas are grouped at the center of the cubicles.
Rice Industry Dioramas
Rainfed (sahod ulan) farming dominates the uplands and hillsides.
Good harvest depends on generous amount and distribution of
rainfall during the monsoon. Since ancient times festivals implore
providence for bountiful harvest. This practice still exists especially
among the minorities like the Yakans.
World famous rice terraces in Banaue in the Cordillera have been declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Rice farming on the terraces is as old as the terraces believed to be as old as the Pyramids of Egypt, and much older than the Great Wall of China. Science is still studying the sustainability of these terraces.
The Encomienda System dominated agriculture during Spanish rule over the
islands for more than three centuries. The friars and Spanish officials were the encomienderos, similar to hacienderos. Although the system underwent land reform, it still persists to this day under corporate umbrella such as the case of Del Monte pineapple plantation. Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac still retains some features
of the system.
Details of two dioramas depicting the Banaue Rice Terraces
and the Hacienda under the Spanish Encomienda System
This mural was destroyed when the wall it was painted on
had to undergo major repairs.
How primitive are farmers' tools and implements? The animal-drawn sled predates the wheel cart, and has not changed since its invention thousands of years ago. It is still used in the remote countryside.
Brain coral for shelling corn raises eyebrow to the city bred. Biggest iron bar scale (timbangan), probably is another item for the Book of Guinness.
Mechanical dryer for palay, corn and beans
“Closing a museum to save money is like holding your breath to save oxygen...”
― Nanette L. Avery
Prototype two-stroke diesel engine, prime mover for milling.
Donated by the late Mr. Bonifacio Tambot, Binalonan, Pangasinan
― Monica O Montgomery
Banaue Rice Terraces* Mural at the Grains Museum
"Of the Eight Wonders of the Ancient World, only the Banaue Rice Terraces and the Pyramids of Egypt exist today. The difference between the two however, is that the former continues to sustain a stable civilization as it did in its whole history, while the latter are but colossal empty tombs that speak of an ancient civilization." - avrotorIfugao Rice Terraces wall mural (10ft x 11ft) in acrylic at the Grains Museum of the
National Food Authority, NFA Regional Office Building, Cabanatuan City, AVRotor 2017
National Food Authority, NFA Regional Office Building, Cabanatuan City, AVRotor 2017
To Filipinos it is a monument of pride as a race, a living proof of indigenous ingenuity, and a legacy of pre-Hispanic culture. Which leads scholars to re-define civilization and to put it in proper perspective, other than what the Western World thinks.
The terraces are a stairway to heaven, piercing through the cloud, taller than the pyramids, the Tower of Babel, the Eiffel Tower - tallest of all man- made structures - built by bare hands with the crudest tools as early as three thousand years ago.
A collective masterpiece of tribes working in cooperation and peace, a prototype nation where people were governed by common aspirations, beliefs, language, customs, isolated from the outside world like the Aztecs and Mayans.
Agro-ecology - a modern term to describe harmony of agriculture and ecology - farming and environment - was born incognito and thrived for centuries, until modern man arrived, studied the "secrets of the rice terraces" and proclaimed himself the discoverer.
What does he know about the Hudhud, the narrative chants and dance and worship at planting time, harvest time, and other rituals? Would this mean anything to increased production, return of investment, research and development?
Believe in cloud seeding the natural way, when clouds collect atop the rice terraces, and condense into rain, gathered at the forest watershed, then slowly released terrace after terrace irrigating the rice plant crop, in precise amount and timetable.
Wonder how the rice varieties of the terraces were developed - varieties jibed with the habagat and amihan, and social life. It was a grave error in introducing 90-day varieties to have two harvests in a year instead of only one, which needed high input and mechanization.
Modernizing agriculture on the rice terraces by introducing chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, use of tractors and other machines, changed the indigenous cycle of the rice plant, so with the socio-economic and cultural lives of the people.
Floating vegetable culture (heap of organic soil) on the terraces, a version of Mexico's floating garden, and India's Sorjan, is no longer feasible with modern agriculture. So with fish culture, the source of food and protein of the inhabitants. The whole food chain and web has been disturbed.
Where is the new generation to take over the old folks, now in their past fifties or sixties - or older? Many terraces are no longer managed the way they were for centuries. They are facing deterioration that may end up to irreversible decline. Erosion, siltation, landslide, gully formation at work need serious and immediate attention.
The "native ambiance" is giving way to posh hotels, modern homes, well paved road networks, various establishments which cater to tourists. Lately a 7-storey parking building has sparked controversy; local officials and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts were appalled.
Banaue Rice Terraces, the tallest and the steepest cluster of terraces in the whole world was granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1995, the first of its kind, but in 2001 it was placed under the List of World Heritage in Danger because of its deteriorating state.
Fortunately it was removed from the list of sites in danger in 2012, but the story does not end there. With globalization taking away the young generation away from the terraces, climate change bringing in unexpected consequences, commercialization changing the face of the area, intrusion of destructive technology, this 8th wonder of the world may yet meet the sad fate of the other wonders of the ancient world. ~
