I DID not exactly comprehend what he was so excited about, as he led the way to where the farmers were gathered.
“If there is such a thing as heirloom rice, there is also heirloom corn in the Cordillera,” he said, showing the samples of corn cobs he has drawn out from a farmer’s bag.
That was some two years ago, during a consultation meeting with the farmers in Tabuk City, when Mr. Gerardo Banawa, assistant regional corn program coordinator told me that the heirloom flint corn was being grown in the highlands of Pasil, Kalinga, since time immemorial.
According to Mr. Banawa, the corn was grown by several generations of farmers in small mountain plots beside their rice terraces.
The cobs have multi-colored kernels that are sticky when cooked.
Actually, the heirloom corn referred to here was once cultivated all over the Cordillera, but the farmers in Pasil have succeeded in preserving this heritage crop as a small-scale mountain farm crop.
With the continued growth in the nation’s population and the dwindling of the plains’ agricultural areas in favor of housing and industrial uses, the cultivation of heirloom flint corn in the Cordillera as food might just be making a come-back.
There are some folks who believe that prioritizing the promotion of flint corn as a food staple in the Cordillera is a losing venture. There is no local demand for the crop since the population has not been eating rice mixed with corn, or corn alone as a staple.
However, other people say that may be true for some, at least for the moment. People use to eat sweet potato (camote) mixed with rice; or rice mixed with corn, they explained. Besides, corn is a healthy alternative to rice as a staple food, they added.
To several farmers in Abra, the pros and cons of the argument does not have any effect on what they already know about flint corn, as a viable and profitable livelihood for their families for decades.
Abra Province, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is the major supplier of corn kernels for the “Cornick industry” of the Ilocos region.
In Abra and elsewhere in the region, things could only get better.
Last year, the whole of the Cordillera region’s production of flint corn is 17,888 metric tons (MT) with 15, 397 MT coming from Abra. The other major producers are Kalinga with 1,068 MT, and Apayao, 984 MT.
This year, the agriculture department (DA) in the region will step-up its development support to the production of flint corn, which is being eyed to play a crucial role in the agency’s efforts to ensure food security in the country.
Last December 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte launched the DA’s rice-corn (RiCo) blend Project. DA Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol in an interview with reporters said that the agency will shell out at least “P500 million this year to sustain the RiCo blend project, which seeks to improve the country’s food security and cut its dependence on rice imports.”
According to Secretary Piñol, RiCo blends would be commercially sold to the nation’s markets in the second quarter, starting with pure corn grits and the 50-50 blend or rice-corn mix of 50 percent white rice and 50 percent white corn which is easier to mix than the other blends.
By giving priority focus to flint corn, DA-CAR regional technical director for operations, Dr. Danilo Daguio said the region must support “the government’s bid to attain rice self-sufficiency and avoid huge rice imports.”
He added that the healthy RiCo blend will target those who are health conscious. At the same time, excess production “would also help supply the increasing requirements for flint corn in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.”
For his part, Mr. Banawa said the region is tasked to produce a total of 1,952 metric tons of flint corn in an effective area of 936 hectares. He looks ahead to increasing production of quality flint corn for nutrition and food security, and increase the income of farmers in the six provinces of the Cordillera, with Abra leading the charge.
While upping its support to flint corn production and development, assistance to yellow corn production will be sustained by the DA in the region. Yellow corn is the basic ingredient found in livestock feed which is another booming industry that supports the livelihood of the nation’s corn farmers.
Over the years, since the establishment of the Cordillera Administrative Region, corn production has become a major industry for the region’s local farmers.
A yellow corn industry was unheard of when CAR was established. Today, according to the PSA, the region produces some 242,850 MT harvested on an area of 61, 391 hectares (2017).
Once again we see how dedicated small farmers are to their livelihood.
With guidance and support, they don't just make our food systems more stable, rooted to culture and history, but interesting and connected too.
And with the younger generation watching on, let us hope that they will realize that they must not only care for their traditions but prepare to carry on improving them.