[9][10] Nevertheless, rice is an ancient ancestral crop of the Philippines, having been carried by Austronesian migrations into the islands since at least 1500 BCE (3500 years ago).

[14] The Ifugao people practice traditional farming spending most of their labour at their terraces and forest lands while occasionally tending to root crop cultivation.

The difficulty of planting kalinayan and other rice varieties with the soil type in these areas leads to the building of the rice terraces entailing construction of retaining walls with stones and rammed earth which are designed to draw water from a main irrigation canal above the terrace clusters.

As their source of life and art, the rice terraces have sustained and shaped the lives of the community members.

An event declaring this achievement was organized in Dianara Viewpoint in collaboration with local and municipal government, Greenpeace, and the Miss Earth Foundation.

Contrary to popular belief perpetrated by its inclusion on the twenty peso banknote, the Banaue Rice Terraces are not a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[16] The five clusters inscribed as part of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are Batad, Bangaan, Hungduan, Mayoyao Central and Nagacadan.

The Hapao Rice Terraces are located in Hungduan and are stone-walled from Sagada rock formation and date back to 650 AD.