Philippines develops new white corn varieties

Researchers at the University of Southern Mindanao, Philippines, have developed six new high-yielding white corn varieties that are said to be resistant to two common plant diseases.

The Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) said this development could help farmers get rid of the stalk rot and ear rot problems in white corn plants.

BAR said the researchers screened more than a thousand of germplasm samples for bacterial stalk rot and fusarium ear rot to identify genetic materials which are resistant to the diseases which were then used to develop the new corn varieties.

The experiment yielded six new corn varieties - three composite varieties, two synthetic varieties and one hybrid variety.

"Stalk rot and ear rot are the most serious and widespread corn diseases resulting in crop damage and yield losses to farmers," the research arm of the Department of Agriculture said.

Stalk rot is manifested by premature plant death and plant lodge caused by species stenocarpella and pectobacterium; while ear rot is characterised by the discoloration on the caps of individual kernels caused by the fusarium species.

To date, stalk rot and ear rot have no effective control yet whether through pesticide or fungicide. Only breeding strategies such as combined plant genetic resistance with high-yielding trait could be a logical approach in achieving long-term control of these major diseases, BAR said.

BAR said the new varieties would provide a more reliable, economical, effective and environment-friendly disease control measures for bacterial stalk rot and fusarium ear rot diseases.