Museums are the best places to learn about a community’s tradition, practices, culture and arts.
The Rice Science Museum of the Philippine Rice Research Institute in Maligaya, Munoz, Nueva Ecija was relaunched in September 2014 and now contains a multi-sensory display of traditional and modern farm tools and implements, visual arts (paintings made out of dried natural multi-colored palay), sculptures and scale models of rice production and post-harvest tools and practices and a visionary four-dimensional display of technologies for the future farm. The museum is actually a mini model of what PhilRice has actually developed in its 140-hectare research and development farm.
The current site of the museum used to be the main building of PhilRice until several buildings to house the administration, research and development and other activities were put up and thus the “freed” space was transformed into a full-time museum in 2014.
Heirloom Palay Seeds
Interesting to note is that PhilRice also has a repository for 18,000 heirloom palay seeds kept in airtight-sealed gene bank or refrigerator that can be stored for a hundred years. If the seeds are found to be not viable after 50 years, they are given to farmers for propagation to ensure these genes will continue to prosper, explained Jonathan Cabral, science research specialist who briefed OpinYon.
The museum, now accredited with the Department of Tourism, not only exhibits a few collections from the Cordilleras but has become an educational venue to promote rice science and technology and in fostering the adoption of new farming practices.
Other than the farmers, the museum caters to the youth, foreigners from fellow rice-producing countries, and the general public in an innovative form of extension work about healthier breeds of rice, new farm technologies, and a general appreciation of the rice sector and environment, including beneficial and harmful insects in a farm.
Museum Guests
Visitors from Japan, Nepal, and Korea have learned about rice production in the Philippines through their visit.
From an average of 2,000 monthly visitors in 2016, the number keeps growing especially during tour peak season of September and October because of promotional activities like mobile exhibits, social media and among public elementary, high school students and those from universities, professional and religious groups.
Prominently displayed are paintings made of dried palay seeds inspired by Fernando Amorsolo’s Bayanihan (1959) made by Sonny Pangilinan and Ma. Cristina Newingham; Tinikling (1956) and upon entering the museum, one finds an unfinished mural entitled “Transformation and Progress” of the late Carlito Vibal.
“We display this mural to show the continuing development of the Museum,” explained Cabral who is under Laarni Mandia, head of the Community Relations Office in charge of the museum.
Miniature Models
There are also glass-encased miniature models of farm machineries developed by PhilRice, but which were commercially produced and sold by private machinery companies.
Also in the museum are small sealed packets of upland rice varieties (at 12 to 14 percent moisture content) to show people that there are more rice varieties than one can imagine.
A prototype of the improved mobile rice husk gasifier engine power system also shows how the ipa (husk) is burned and the resulting liquid is converted and used in gasoline engine. Another version is being done for powering diesel engines. Both of them, once made available to farmers, can substantially reduce their fuel cost for farm machineries.
Beneficial Insects
The museum also displays the harmful and beneficial insects and how to propagate (through improving the habitat of beneficial insects) and harnessing them to destroy the population of harmful farm insects, thereby reducing the cost of pesticides and insecticides.
A huge electronic tablet shows the Binhing Palay app, which anyone can access through a smart phone or other gadgets, that talks about the different palay varieties and their characteristics, planting and harvesting time, if they are drought or water resistant, if they can be planted in areas where saltwater intrudes, resilience to pest and diseases and other important information relative to the variety.
A scale model of alternate wet & dry (AWD) water saving technology (otherwise called observation wells) or a field water tube measuring 25-cms tall and 4-inches wide, teaches farmers, especially those in irrigated areas when to release water so that those at the fringes of irrigation canals can also get their water supply for their fields.
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