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Rising Above Adversity: The Story of Biotech Corn in the Philippines
By Whitney Sparks
Posted about 1 month ago
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The article below includes excerpts and references from "How Biotech Corn Helped Restore a Town," by Tony A. Rodriguez, as published in Agriculture Magazine, November 2011. Permission for their use has been granted by the author, Tony A. Rodriguez.
The area surrounding the town of Lambayong, Mindanao in the Philippines was once known as the "rice granary of Sultan Kudarat." However, it was among the most devastated settlements after Typhoon Frank hit in June, 2008. Heavy rains brought by the tropical storm caused the two biggest rivers in Eastern Mindanao to overflow, turning the town's more than 6,000 hectares of riceland into a lake and destroying its multi-million-peso irrigation system. Floodwaters took two months to subside and washed away most of the farmland and irrigation canals.
The devastation affected more than 4,000 households in Mindanao. Farmer Conching Reyes saw her house damaged and her rice fields stripped bare. She had no hope of repaying the loans she had taken out for her crop. A rice farmer for 30 years, Reyes had started as a tenant tilling two hectares, eventually saving enough to purchase farmland of her own.
To help farmers like Reyes recover, Johnny and Miriam Agduma offered crop financing to growers in Lambayong in November, 2009. They encouraged farmers to plant corn by offering seeds of conventional hybrid varieties and DEKALB biotech corn. Many farmers were unfamiliar with corn and were hesitant to purchase seed. DEKALB cost more than those of open-pollinated (OP) and conventional hybrid varieties.
As a forward-thinking grower, Reyes accepted the Agdumas' loan of DEKALB seed and purchased DK-818 RRC2/YG on credit. She planted these in four hectares with the help of the Agdumas, who had apprenticed in the DEKALB Training Center (DKLC) maintained by Monsanto Philippines, Inc. The DKLC helped educate the farmers and prepare them for successes with biotech corn. Optimal soil conditions enabled Lambayong's first ever corn plantings to go well.
At harvest time, a neighboring farmer planted an OP variety in five hectares picked 7,000 kilos of unshelled corn-enough to load on a four-wheeler Elf, the smallest of the Isuzu trucks. Reyes' uncle used conventional hybrid seed on four hectares and loaded his harvest of about 12,000 kilos on an Isuzu Forward, a six-wheeler. Reyes needed a 10-wheeler truck hired by the Agdumas' to haul her harvest of 22 tons from the four hectares that she had planted.
Including the cost of the seeds, she spent 80,0000 pesos in her first corn crop. Her total net income was more than 170,000 pesos. With this return, she repaid part of her loan from the Agdumas' as well as portions of the loans she had accrued when still growing rice.
During the following growing season, Reyes allotted 13 hectares of her land for DEKALB seed and was able to repay all of her loans with the proceeds of that harvest.
Reyes saw the benefits of DEKALB and encouraged her neighbors to plant corn. In March 2010, she joined Monsanto Philippines' DEKALB Ambassador Program to help farmers plant biotech corn in Lambayong. Growing the crop helped Lamabayong recover from their misfortune and improve their lives.
Reyes organized farmer education meetings with the help of Monsanto's Jennie Basilio. The first meeting drew 294 farmers. The Agdumas paid for 200 farmers to travel to the DKLC in Marbel to learn more about planting corn.
Today, farmers in the Lambayong area plant DK-818 and DK-878 on nearly 300 hectares. In a few seasons, this storm-ravaged "rice granary" has turned into a corn-growing powerhouse.
Reyes, who has built a new home in Tacurong City, now answers to a new nickname: Doña Dekalb. She doesn't object, knowing it's in gratitude for showing other farmers the benefits of growing the corn. To many, the new crop has represented a pathway out of the misery and helplessness they suffered at the hands of Typhoon Frank.
A mere three years later, the hopes and dreams of hundreds are growing with the corn.
