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Corn farmers in Iloilo, particularly in the town of Sara, are now
planting genetically enhanced varieties to maximize their profits,
with many of them swearing they have been netting between P25, 000
and P35,000 per hectare every cropping season.
Curiously, these farmers are not planting the
crop in flatlands but in hostile territory, in the steep hillsides
and slopes earlier believed to be hostile to any food crop.
Moreover, the new corn variety they are using,
“Roundup Ready,” fits upland soil and uses practically no
herbicides since the strain has been genetically enhanced by
Monsanto Philippines to survive with least soil preparation and
without the need to apply herbicides that target the dreaded Asian
Corn Borer (ACB).
Rosallie Ellasus, President of PhilMaize
Foundation (PhilMaize), who earlier led the holding of the National
Corn Congress in Iloilo City, said local farmers are convinced about
the many benefits of Roundup Ready and bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
corn, which have been genetically strengthened to battle practically
all types of pests.
Bt corn was developed using the bacteria that
naturally fights pests and the trait has been carried by seeds that
are now being propagated nationwide, even in the 26,000 hectares of
land in Sara, Iloilo that are devoted to corn cultivation.
Ellasus said the yield of Roundup Ready and Bt
corn ranges from 4.5 tons to 5.5 tons per hectare, and this figure
would not have been achieved with the farmers relying only on the
traditional varieties.
Monsanto has been very active in promoting the
use of genetically enhanced corn varieties in Iloilo and other parts
of Panay Island through the “Tipid Saka” program.
The genetically enhanced corn varieties require
little tillage and do not even require the use of hand tractors and
other equipment normally used in flatlands.
PhilMaize recently sponsored a demonstration of
the latest upland farming technology in Iloilo and impressed
municipal agriculturists from various parts of the country.
Alexander Bugaon, the municipal agriculturist of
Lorto, Agusan del Sur said such farming technology could be applied
in their town.
Edgardo Escobanez, municipal agriculturist of
Kulasi, Antique and Concepcion Cepe, assistant provincial
agriculturist and provincial corn coordinator of Antique said they
were impressed by the superiority of such corn variety, which can
grow better and produce more yield in such highly elevated areas
like the corn plantations in Sara.
Ellasus said genetically engineered,
herbicide-tolerant or pest-resistant crops like the controversial
bacillus thuringiensis or Bt corn, gives farmers an edge, as it cuts
costs.
On the other hand, to minimize loss from massive
infestation by dreaded pests in the case of corn, the Asian Corn
Borer (ACB), farmers need to apply chemical pesticides.
The Bt corn is genetically engineered to resist
the ACB.
Ellasus said even some of the landless farmers
in Iloilo, who see better economic opportunities in planting corn,
are now “expanding” their plantation, thus triggering a massive
conversion of idle land, including what used to be grasslands, into
cornfields in upland areas.
A group of individuals in Iloilo that formed the
Northern Iloilo Corn Producers Association, Inc. (NICPAI) also saw
the opportunity.
They started venturing in micro financing to
help farmers by lending them loans. The partnership between
NICPAI and the farmers have convinced some landowners in the upland
areas with big landholdings to lease out their idle lands to corn
farmers.
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