China's debt of gratitude to the Philippines

In this time of increasing rice prices, Filipinos tend to use alternative crops like corn, potato, among others to make up for their carbohydrate-loaded diet. Sweet potato, or locally known as "kamote", is the top-of-mind alternative to rice especially for those Filipinos living in rural areas.

But do you know that this rice-kamote relationship goes beyond economic boundary. There is, in fact, some history into it that went as far back as many centuries.

It was during the Ming Dynasty under the reign of then Emperor Wan Li that the local crop was brought to China to feed millions of starving Chinese. Since, kamote is easy to grow even in barren and unfertile land as it needs only a little soil and water to survive, it became instrumental in solving China's problem during those times in dealing with famine and severe droughts.

Then, hundreds of years later circa 1970s, a Chinese agriculturist named Yuan Long Ping, now known as "The Father of Hybrid Rice", introduced the technology of hybrid rice to the Philippines. According to Prof. Yuan, he agreed to bring his technology to the Philippines in order to repay the nation for having introduced sweet potato or "kamote" to China hundreds of years ago.

Many of us might think that hybrid rice had originated from Vietnam or Thailand; but now we know that it actually came from China. The Filipinos had just taught Vietnamese and Thai farmers of rice farming methodologies, which included growing hybrid varieties, building rice terraces, irrigation, among others. These two nations are now the two top rice exporting countries and the Philippines is their biggest customer.

Going back to kamote, there were tributes written for the lowly crop by some Chinese historians and poets. The most famous of which is He Qiao Yuan's history of kamote that appeared in his popular book Min Shu (Book on Fujian), and his poem entitled "Fan Shu Song" (Ode to the Kamote). So this is how the Chinese people give high regard to kamote.

Not unlike in the Philippines, the local crop is being associated with farting and "dull moments". If a person has a hard time doing a certain task, he is said to be "nangangamote". Whenever someone farts, he is thought to have eaten a lot of kamote. But of course, these are just but a local butt of joke. (He-heh-heh!)