Agri office starts program for other staples

TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (Opag) has increased its efforts on food security and started to develop other sources of staple food for the province.

Even for a top rice-producing province like Kalinga, it is still wise to discover and develop other potential sources of staple crops like corn and camote, Provincial Agriculturist Domingo Bakilan said.

Under this program, Opag launched a new project on white corn production and opened a corn farm at its lot for the production of white corn seeds.

Bakilan said it is high time that Kalinga should produce its own certified corn seeds since there is enough land and farm intervention here instead of always depending from sources outside the province.

Seeds propagated from the project are intended for distribution to small farmers, coupled with the task of educating them that white corn is high source of minerals that could take the place of rice as staple food, Bakilan said. - (Larry Lopez)