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Archives
June 1-15, 2000
Million-peso project to boost corn
industry
by Mary O. Charlotte O. Fresco
The potential of corn as an immediate
substitute fo rice has been highlighted in suppotr of
the government's vision of attaining food security and
self-sufficiency for the country. It is estimated that
20 percent of the populace depends on white corn as
food. However, a tremendous decline in white corn's
annual production yield has been observed in the past
few years due to neglect in terms of budget allocation
for research and development.
The Bureau of Agricultural Research spearheads
a landmark project aimed at turning the outlook for
this sector around.
The approved project entitled Strengthening
the Integrated Corn Research Development and Extension
Network was presented to partner R&D institutions
in an orientation meeting held on 06 June at the ATI-BAR
Conference Room in Quezon City. It aims to ensure stable
supply of affordable high-quality corn seeds through
institutionalized sustainable corn RDE and the development
of technologies.
The project is a sub-component of the
Grain Sector Development Program (GSDP), with funding
coming from the Asianb Development Bank. The P510-million
project (loan proceeds and GOP combined) will focus
on increasing the national average production yield
of high quality white corn seeds and special corn types
to met the increasing demand of corn by consumers and
corn-user industries.
Specifically, the project aims to:
- renovate and upgrade research facilities in eight research
centers, namely USM, UPLB, ARMM, regions 2, 5, 7, 10
and 12;
- implement the national integrated corn research and
development agenda;
- promote the use of genetically improved seeds through
farmers' training and dissemination of parental lines
selected varieties to enable the country to achieve
and average yield of 1 metric ton/ha/cropping/year,
and;
- develop core scientific staff for corn research and
BAR monitoring staff.
- As agreed upon in the last concluded consultation-meeting,
the University of Southner Mindanao (USM) oin Kabacan,
North Cotabato will house the corn Central Laboratory.
Included in the agreement is the renovation and upgrading
of existing research facilities.
Upgrading of laboratories within the USM Crop Science
Laboratories shall be done through acquisition of equiment,
renovation and repair of existing laboratories. These
laboratories are: DNA and Molecular Genetics Laboratory;
Crop Protection Laboratory; Database, Biometrics/Statistics
Laboratory; Soils aand Plant Physiology Laboratory;
and Seed Technology Laboratory.
The above facilities are expected to serve scientists,
researchers and students conducting researches on corn.
The project will also provide vehicles to facilitate
monitoring of corn sites and transport of white corn
seeds from the fields to the storage warehouses.
There is "a need for a more focused R&D program
for corn." This was the diagnosis of the BAR for
the corn sector. White corn researhc will focus on gremplasm
and varietal improvemnt, pest manageent, grain quality
improvement, processing and development studies, socio-economics
and marketing studies. A seed distribution training
program is designed to teach small farmers how to produce
their own genetically improved seeds from varieties
continuously developed by the corn researhc network.
FUnding for this program will come from the Integrated
Crop Mangement of ATI.
Moreover, the project will include human
resource developmnt by providing researchers opportunities
to pursue doctorate degrees here and abroad. Skill enhancement
trainings will also be suppotred in this project to
build the capability of corn researchers and farmers.
The project would entail th esrevices
of one full-time project director, five full-time senior
scientists and a minimum of three support staff. Project
implementation will be from October this year up to
2004. 
June 1-15 2000 Articles: ::
Million-peso project to boost corn industry
::
RP-Thailand sign agri research MOU
::
BAR named lead institution of NARS forum
::
Rice sequencing project yields breakthrough
::
Tree crop project conducts targets rural smallholders
::: More June 2000 articles :::
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