February 20, 2008

Monsanto introduces contour farming in Philippine corn programme

Biotech pioneer Monsanto is introducing the old conservation practice, "contour farming," for Philippine corn expansion with a target area of 75,000 hectares of hilly grasslands.

According to the Manila Bulletin, Monsanto has already started adopting a farm practice that is highly advanced yet environmental friendly in areas where it supplies genetically modified (GM) Bacillus thuringiensis (borer-resistant Bt corn) and Roundup Ready (herbicide-resistant) corn.

Dr. Victor V. Alpuerto, Monsanto commercial acceptance director, said the company is aligning its conservation farming techniques with the corn expansion programme of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on 75,000 hectares for 2008.

The DA will work on hilly lands that have been idle, which can cause erosion problems that can endanger land productivity and farming sustainability.

Contour farming is the planting of crops across mountainous slopes wherein topsoil is kept on sloping fields, rainwater flow is controlled, water is directly soaked and conserved in the soil, labour is reduced and harvest becomes easier.

In Sara, Iloilo, conservation tillage (zero tillage or no plowing) is being practiced by farmers which control erosion on the upland. To make a balance, this technique will intersperse contour farming in corn areas where there is conservation tillage.

Monsanto will work with the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) as the centre has been successful in combining the technique of environmental harmony and technology farming through its pilot sites in Claveria, Misamis Oriental.

Alpuerto explains that in contour farming, a strip of natural vegetation of half-a-meter in between plots is be retained as part of the environmental conservation system. This strip takes up space that should otherwise increase production.

However, he said the tradeoff from the loss of this productive area "is a long-term gain of a sustainable high yield from the land owing to retention of the soil and its nutrients".

Alpuerto notes that without contour farming, land becomes unproductive and may lost to erosion. Terraces (from natural vegetation strips), can reduce farm area but land can still be utilised for a long time.

Monsanto will train farmers on contour farming in upland areas of Ifugao, Aurora, Zambales, Bataan, Zamboanga and in corn-after-rice areas in Ilocos and Central Luzon provinces.

As global warming poses serious threats of erosion and landslides, Alpuerto said the use of these conservation farming techniques becomes more imperative as contour farming can reduce fuel usage by land tractors which in turn decreases carbon dioxide emission.

The use of borer-resistant corn seeds also spares spraying of environmentally-destructive fossil fuel-based pesticides. Bt corn which omits the need for spraying is being used in corn borer-infected areas in Pangasinan, Ilocos provinces, Pampanga, and other Central Luzon provinces.

It is estimated that less than 10 percent of all 2.3 hectares of corn lands in the country practice conservation farming. And this technique may be targeted at a big 1.62 million hectares of potentially hilly corn lands outside of hybrid corn areas (680,000 hectares).

Apparently, there is a need to teach farmers on contour farming and zero tillage in hilly areas in Northern Mindanao, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, and Nueva Vizcaya.

DA is targeting to raise corn production in 2008 to 7.384 million tonnes, up by 9.61 percent from 2007 by developing an estimated 66,502 hectares of idle grasslands. It has allotted a P660 million (US$16.62 million) budget for farmers' training, establishment of 50 post harvest centres, and seed subsidy to farmers.

Monsanto has commercialised in the country its Bt corn in 2003 and of Roundup Ready corn in 2005. The company also introduced the first bollworm-resistant cotton, stacked trait corn (with corn borer resistance and herbicide resistance), and corn hybrids that yield more ethanol per bushel.