China helps RP attain corn sufficiency

China, which is emerging as one of the Philippines’ strongest partners in agricultural development, is donating an initial 10 metric tons of high-yielding hybrid corn seeds for the October planting season.

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. said the volume, enough to cover 500 hectares, will include the provision of free technical training on hybrid seed production to be conducted by Chinese intermediaries through the network of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).

"The volume may be considered modest but it demonstrates China’s good intention to help us graduate from our corn-import dependent status, in the same way that it has also been actively supporting us with our hybrid rice production program," Lorenzo said.

He said 29 varieties of Chinese hybrid corn seeds from the Jilin Province Haoyu Seed Industrial Co. Ltd. were shipped to the country late last year and were tested at three different sites from December 2003 to April this year.

Citing actual field trial results, Lorenzo said many of the Chinese hybrids performed better than commercial hybrids including two varieties from multinational companies Pioneer and Monsanto.

He said the varieties tested had higher yields and showed resistance to diseases and insect pests notably the Asian corn borer.

The highest yield recorded was made at an experimental farm in Bohol where the ZF24 variety of Haoyu produced 10.82 tons of corn per hectare.

This is almost twice the yield of hybrids promoted by American seed companies and five times better than the two tons per hectare average yield of existing corn varieties used by local corn farmers.

In Bohol, another Chinese hybrid, the ZF22 outperformed those of local hybrids by yielding 10.5 tons per hectare.

At an experimental farm in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, ZF15 obtained the highest yield of 9.63 tons per hectare, with three other Chinese hybrids producing not less than eight tons. Their performances were way above the 5.83 tons per hectare yield registered by Pioneer and the 5.82 tons registered by CW 801, a variety promoted by local hybrid grower Corn World.

Lorenzo said the seeds to be donated by the Chinese for October 2004 would consist of the best performing hybrids based on the field trials done locally early this year, assuring farmers of quality planting materials that can do better than what are already available to them.

"China would help us leapfrog in our corn self-sufficiency efforts. With their hybrid seeds, our farmers would definitely have wider options to choose from in making decisions on what is best for their farms," Lorenzo explained.