August 19, 2009

Corn farmers in Negros Occidental should be able to meet local demand without having to use genetically modified varieties, given the availability of modern post-harvest facilities, an organic agriculture advocate said.

Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (NISARD) executive director Rommel Ledesma said the number of farmers planting corn in the province seem to be increasing, with the operation of the newly built Corn Post Harvest Processing and Trading Center in Sagay City, in northern Negros.

Leaders of livestock and poultry industries in Negros Occidental, who use feed corn genetically altered with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), have been protesting the ban on such genetically modified organisms (GMO) in the province, arguing that they do not have sufficient local sources of corn.

Ledesma said one farmers' group confirmed in the last week of July that its members have access to 500 hectares ready for corn production, which is 10 percent of the 5,000-6,000 hectares needed by Negros Occidental - which now meets only 40 percent to 50 percent of its corn requirement - to become self-sufficient in this crop.

Last May, Sagay City Mayor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. said that, this month, farmers in his city and the neighboring areas of Escalante, Cadiz, and Calatrava expect to harvest over 1,000 hectares of GMO-free corn at an estimated average yield of seven tonnes per hectare.