Corn Breeding

n Mindanao, the region with the widest corn-growing area, a total of 17 organizations set-up Corn Trial Farms in 2004. Many these new organizations are Lumad and Muslim indigenous communities in Sultan Kudarat and Lanao del Sur. A total of 66 Corn Trial Farms has been established for the period 2002-2004.

Focus for the Phase 3 corn program had been in the continuing capacity building of pilot farmers' organizations to undertake the corn breeding and conservation work on their own. A total of 105 (TCVs) were collected in Mindanao. A breakthrough in crop improvement under the Corn Breeding and Development Program is the development of corn composites that have shown tolerance against corn borer. A total of seven (7) composites are now in different stages of development. The TCV collection, including MASMIN composites WC-1, WC-2 and WC-3 have been widely distributed in Mindanao and in other corn growing areas in the regions.

An increasing number of fully-organic corn practitioners have been documented over the 3-year period now with a total of 819 fully-organic corn farmers covering 859.26 hectares.

In Luzon, a continuing on-farm research had been undertaken on the use of yellow corn bred from local varieties of corn in Pangasinan had cbeen undertaken.

In the Visayas, activities involved the development of the focus site in Negros for the corn program and the conduct of orientation for 18 members of TALAMNAN Federation. Meanwhile, their collection of open-pollinated variety (OPV) native yello corn has been harvested in Alimodian and Leon.