NGOs, DA promote adlai as food, medicinal plant

MANILA, Philippines –  Two non-government organizations (NGOs), with help from the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), are promoting the production of adlai both as a food and medicinal herb.

The two NGOs –Earthkeepers and MASIPAG – together with the BAR held recently in Bukidnon a five-day training-planning workshop on adlai production.

In some parts of Asia, adlai is considered a cereal in much the same way that rice is. Its grain is often used in soups and broth. In Southern Vietnam, sam bo luong, a sweet and cold soup, has adlai as its main ingredient.

Beers and wines may be made from fermented adlai grains. Aged vinegar is also made out of it in Japan. Yulmu cha, or Job’s tears tea, is a thick drink in Korea made from powdered adlai. The Koreans also produce a liquor that is made from adlai together with rice and it is called okroju.

Known widely in Asian countries for its medicinal qualities, adlai a folk remedy for a wide range of ailments.

Two species

According to Raquel Oclarit-Salingay, research and extension (R&E) coordinator of MASIPAG Mindanao, there are two species of adlai – Coix lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi and Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen.

The variety lacryma-jobi is the one being utilized as beads and is usually found in swampy areas. The variety ma-yuen, on the other hand, is the one harvested as a cereal food.

Bobby Misa Pagusara, regional coordinator of MASIPAG Mindanao, summarized the importance and potentials of Adlai:

• It is more nutritious than rice and corn, for it is high in protein and also contains calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin

• It helps enhance/increase food biodiversity

• It is tolerant to pest and diseases

• Minimal cost of production as it can ratoon. It only requires a single land preparation and planting but you can harvest three to five times, and there is no need for irrigation. It is resilient to drought and flood. One round of weeding is enough and does not require chemical synthetic fertilizer application

Farmers will be empowered with the introduction of a new low input-requiring crop. Pioneering farmers would have technologies and seeds are in their control since, as of now, there are only a few farmers who cultivate this plant.

Dr. Chito P. Medina, national coordinator of MASIPAG, said there is a need to explore the potentials of other lesser-known species such as adlai. He said there are 30,000 edible plant species and another 50,000 that have potential edible parts but only 7, 000 of these species are being cultivated for food.

 “We should not depend only on rice and corn. We need alternative crops for rice so that the rice crisis of 2008 will not recur. Rice and corn may be infested and attacked by diseases, and these may not adapt well to the changing climate thus leading to another cereal crisis. Now, we have adlai to turn to,” Dr. Medina said. “We should not be forever dependent on importing rice from other countries,” he added.

Earthkeepers’ headquarters is located at Brgy. Talisay, Tiaong Quezon. It is owned and managed by Teresa Perez-Saniano together with husband, Arman, and started out as a commercial garden that sold plants and landscaping materials. It also used to be a restaurant that serves foods that are organically grown. Now, it’s the office of an NGO that is an advocate as well as a practitioner of organic farming. Earthkeepers was represented in the training program by Dante Delima.

MASIPAG is composed of organizations and networks of POs (people’s organization), scientists, farmers and breeders as well as trainers. It started in 1986 with the main goal of empowering resource-poor farmers and improving their quality of life through participatory planning and development to enable farmers to effectively and efficiently utilize locally available resource, and to access and control the resources of production.