Manila, The Philippines
January 24, 2009
by Melody M. Aguiba,
Manila Bulletin via
SEAMEO SEARCA
The government is releasing a high-lysine open pollinated
variety of white corn (OPV) that can boost nutrient enhancement
in the diet of marginalized farmers producing some two million
metric tons (MT) of white corn yearly.
A seed production tie-up has been entered by the Department of
Agriculture and University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB)
in producing the nutrient-rich corn.
It will be produced for commercial distribution after going
through local suitability tests and improvement, according to
UPLB Vice Chancellor-Research and Extension Enrico P. Supangco.
Called the "IPB Var 6," the corn has been originally produced by
Mexico-based Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y
Trigo (CIMMYT) or International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center.
It has been developed and propagated extensively in Ghana and
other African countries and has already been adopted by several
Asian countries.
"It is what we availed of from CIMMYT because we have people
eating white corn like they do in Ghana," said Dr. Artemio M.
Salazar, UPLB professor and former DA corn director, in an
interview.
Most of those who take white corn for their staple are farmers
themselves who set aside an amount from their harvest for their
own food and their families.
DA will produce 10,000 bags of the white corn's seeds by perhaps
May this year.
The nutrient-enhanced corn has high level of both lysine and
tryptophan which are essential amino acids important in growth
of livestock and poultry and even of human. Lysine content has
been enhanced by around 100 percent in the white corn.
With this enhancement livestock raisers no longer need to put
lysine or tryptophan additives on their feeds even as these
additives prices have already become expensive in the market.
Aside from enhancing lysine and tryptophan content in corn for
feed mills use, Salazar said the high-lysine white corn will
benefit Philippine white corn-eating population found not only
in Visayas and Mindanao but in Luzon including Cebu migrants in
Quezon.
DA Undersecretary Dennis Araullo said planting of white corn is
being extensively done over 100,000 hectares nationwide by DA
and Philippine Coconut Authority over coconut areas for
farmer-families own intake.
Salazar said one other commercial use of white corn is for
starch. White corn has advantage for use in starch because the
color is already white, he said. Some producers of starch that
use corn are found in Davao and Cagayan de Oro.
The IPV Var 6 has already been approved for propagation by the
National Cooperative Testing of the Bureau of Plant Industry.
DA will be providing a subsidy to farmers in the purchase of
their first bag of white corn. DA also funded the seed
production.
But since this is an OPV rather than a hybrid whose seeds have
to be purchased repeatedly since subsequent seeds from original
hybrids do not retain the hybrid vigor, farmers do not need to
keep on purchasing seeds. They normally store OPV seeds for
future planting from their own harvest. |
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