Manila (30 November) -- A soon-to-be-published study of Dr. Leonardo Gonzales, a leading agricultural economist and president of Sikap/Strive Inc, indicated that the introduction of hybrid and GM corn technologies contributed to productivity and resource use efficiency in the corn subsector.

Dr. Gonzales said that "the analysis on productivity and sustainability using trends and the production function approach showed that there has been productivity and resource use efficiency improvements in total corn production during the last 35 years due to the introduction of different seed technologies in the form of hybrid corn seeds and genetically modified yellow corn seeds with improved agronomic traits."

From 1995 to 2009, aggregate corn production of 4.1 million mt was enhanced to 7.0 million mt registering 5-year growth rates of 31 percent from 1995 to 2000 and 33.4 percent from 2005 to 2009, due to hybridization and the introduction of GM technology.

Dr. Gonzales' study also revealed that due to the said seed technologies, "there have been improvements in the resource use efficiency in land, human labor, and fertilizer." Further, the said study also noted significant differences in resource use efficiencies between white and yellow corn production with the latter showing higher levels of productivity and resource use efficiency. Dr. Gonzales added that the difference was further accentuated by the introduction of genetically modified corn seeds from 2002 to 2009.

From 1995 to 2009, yellow corn was the main contributor to aggregate corn production due to production and area expansion. Meantime, since 1995, white corn was only a marginal contributor to total corn in terms of production and area. Dr. Gonzales underscored that in 2009, yellow corn accounted for 67 percent of the total production although the area devoted to it was only 48 percent of the total area harvested to corn.

Dr. Gonzales also hinted that from 1975 to 2009, the land required to produce one metric ton of corn grain decreased from 1.163 ha to 0.382 ha, representing 67.2 percent land use improvement. This indicates that corn production is an efficient way of utilizing the available land for agricultural enterprise activities. Dr. Gonzales said that total corn land use efficiency was primarily driven by production expansion rather than area expansion. From 1975 to 2009, aggregate corn production increased by 163.3 percent, while aggregate corn area harvested decreased by 13.6 percent.

Furthermore, Dr. Gonzales noted there was a a marked increase in fertilizer and chemical use efficiency during the period that GM corn was commercialized from 2002 to 2005 (MON 810) and from 2005 to 2009 (NK 603 and Stack corn). The major contributing factor for the rapid efficiency improvement from 2002 onwards was the steady increase in yellow corn yield during the 2002-2009 period. Meanwhile, chemical efficiency improvement was seen after the introduction of yellow corn hybrid with corn borer tolerance in 2004. Declining per hectare farm chemicals application coupled with increasing grain yield largely contributed to the above improvement of farm chemicals use efficiency in recent years.

Finally, Dr. Gonzales said that these trends should be monitored and their impacts further evaluated to be able to evolve specific policy instruments to benefit the corn subsector.

Meantime, Dr. Randy Hautea, Head of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), said in his presentation at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) recently that transgenic corn production has steadily increased from 10,000 hectares in 2005, to 315,000 hectares in 2007, and 330,000 in 2008. Dr. Hautea said that 200,000 Filipino farmers planted Bt corn as of 2008, with net national impact of biotechnology maize on farm income estimated at US$49 million (about P2.25 billion). As of 2009, the Philippines ranked 11th among countries using Biotech Crops with an estimated 500,000 hectares planted with transgenic corn in 2009. (Sikap/Strive Foundation)