The government is releasing a high-lysine open pollinated variety of white corn (OPV) that can boost nutrient enhancement in the diet of marginalized farmers producing some two million metric tons (MT) of white corn yearly.

A seed production tie-up has been entered by the Department of Agriculture and University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in producing the nutrient-rich corn.

It will be produced for commercial distribution after going through local suitability tests and improvement, according to UPLB Vice Chancellor-Research and Extension Enrico P. Supangco.

Called the "IPB Var 6," the corn has been originally produced by Mexico-based Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) or International International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

It has been developed and propagated extensively in Ghana and other African countries and has already been adopted by several Asian countries.

"It is what we availed of from CIMMYT because we have people eating white corn like they do in Ghana," said Dr. Artemio M. Salazar, UPLB professor and former DA corn director, in an interview.

Most of those who take white corn for their staple are farmers themselves who set aside an amount from their harvest for their own food and their families.

DA will produce 10,000 bags of the white corn’s seeds by perhaps May this year.

The nutrient-enhanced corn has high level of both lysine and tryptophan which are essential amino acids important in growth of livestock and poultry and even of human. Lysine content has been enhanced by around 100 percent in the white corn.

With this enhancement livestock raisers no longer need to put lysine or tryptophan additives on their feeds even as these additives prices have already become expensive in the market.

Aside from enhancing lysine and tryptophan content in corn for feed mills use, Salazar said the high-lysine white corn will benefit Philippine white corn-eating population found not only in Visayas and Mindanao but in Luzon including Cebu migrants in Quezon.

DA Undersecretary Dennis Araullo said planting of white corn is being extensively done over 100,000 hectares nationwide by DA and Philippine Coconut Authority over coconut areas for farmer-families own intake.

Salazar said one other commercial use of white corn is for starch. White corn has advantage for use in starch because the color is already white, he said. Some producers of starch that use corn are found in Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

The IPV Var 6 has already been approved for propagation by the National Cooperative Testing of the Bureau of Plant Industry.

DA will be providing a subsidy to farmers in the purchase of their first bag of white corn. DA also funded the seed production.

But since this is an OPV rather than a hybrid whose seeds have to be purchased repeatedly since subsequent seeds from original hybrids do not retain the hybrid vigor, farmers do not need to keep on purchasing seeds. They normally store OPV seeds for future planting from their own harvest.