By Melody M. Aguiba, Manila Bulletin via SEAMEO SEARCA

After becoming the Philippines’ biggest hybrid rice seed producer, SL Agritech Corp. (SLAC) is releasing a hybrid corn seed with a target to distribute it to 20,000 to 50,000 hectares this year.

SLAC Chairman Henry Lim Bon Liong said the company is optimistic in hybrid corn’s take-up among farmers, even better than in hybrid rice whose local propagation has always fell below government’s target.

“(Distributing) hybrid corn seed is easier than hybrid rice because farmers are already used to it. They have been buying that (even before hybrid rice was introduced), “ he said in an interview.

SLAC has set up technology demonstration farms in a total of 1,000 hectares nationwide. These are in Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Bukidnon, Bohol, and Iloilo.

The new hybrid corn variety is targeted to commercially produce a yield of not less than five metric tons (MT) per hectare, double the national corn yield average of a little more than two MT per hectare.

SLAC is expected to take advantage of its distribution network for rice in capturing the local corn market as it has so far distributed hybrid rice seeds on about 100,00 hectares or close to 50 percent of a total 230,000-hecctare hybrid rice area in the country as of 2004. This are missed government’s 300,000-hectare 2004 hybrid rice target.

According to corn authorities, the lo cal corn market is still at a low hybridization level of just 25 percent of total corn area compared to Thailand’s 95 percent corn hybridization rate.

At some 2.5 million hectares of corn land yearly, this is just equivalent to 625,000 hectares, encouraging hybrid seed producers to develop the market for more high-yielding seeds.

Lim said one determinant of corn’s potential expansion is its use for other purposed than merely feeds, its main use in the Philippines.

“There is a potential for us to grow because in China and Brazil, they’re using corn for ethanol,” he said.

The idea of diversifying corn’s use for industrial uses coincides with Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban’s vision to use corn flour for pharmaceutical uses.

Corn has applications is aspirin as an oxidized starch paste. Corn dries to a “clear, adherent, continuous film and is spread in a thin layer over the aspirin.” Some intravenous substance (IV’s) which has dextrose and w ater solutions make use of corn flour.