Text by Trinnah Marie M Caracho | Photos by Symoon Jugao
Xavier University - College of Agriculture served as a co-convener of the 10th National Corn Congress – Corn Technology Demonstration, Field Tour and Farmers’ Field Days on October 20-24 at the Manresa Farm with the theme “Corn Farming in the ASEAN Integration: Maximizing Opportunities.”
The PhilMaize Foundation, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture Region 10 and XUCA, aims to expose the farmers on the updates and opportunities of the Philippine corn industry. The event also serves as a venue to discuss the prevalent issues on corn farming practices and technologies.
Dr Lina Kwong, XU Academic vice-president, who spoke on behalf of XU President Fr Roberto C Yap SJ, warmly welcomed the guests and participants during the opening program. According to Dr Kwong, the event’s theme is well-timed and is aligned to XU’s mission and vision which is geared toward the ASEAN Economic Integration.
Edilberto De Luna, Department of Agriculture assistant secretary and National Corn Program coordinator, emphasized the need of the country to be more competitive in the value chain process to keep up with the ASEAN market. He added that we must also build a network with other regions in the country in order to learn the best practices in corn production.
This year’s national congress has plenty of activities lined up. Among those are the technology demonstrations of the finest corn farming technologies and practices of the 7 major seed companies, namely, Monsanto, Syngenta, Corn World, Asian Hybrid, Planters, Bioseed, and Du Pont. These companies showcased their finest corn farming technologies.
In addition, there were exhibits and field tours on farm mechanization and post-harvest facilities including technical fora covering organic agriculture, biotechnology, sustainability of crop production practices, marketing through clustering approach and precision agriculture.
The event drew together more than 800 participants composed of corn farmers from Regions 3, 6 and 10, DA officials, local government units, representatives from the private sector, academe and other agricultural stakeholders.
Manresa Farm has been noted as a great venue for field demonstrations and farm mechanization with its number of facilities. The proximity of the Manresa Farm to the neighboring agricultural provinces also adds up to its advantage as it is situated in CDO, “the gateway to Mindanao.”