The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 3, in partnership with the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), staged a harvest festival on Wednesday in an effort to provide farmers with more opportunities to attain higher yield and income.

The first-ever Corn Derby in Central Luzon was held in Barangay Anao, Mexico town, this province with the participation of six private seed companies.

Melody Nombre, regional project officer of the DA-3 corn program, said the corn derby is a project of their agency in which different seeds from various companies are planted in one location to compete with each other in order to give farmers the basis in choosing their preferred corn variety.

Nombre said the purpose of conducting the derby is to know more about the promising corn varieties that are readily available in the market and to have an opportunity to explore the corresponding technologies that the seed companies have used.

The six seed companies in the region that participated in the corn derby were the Advanta Seeds Philippines, Asian Hybrid Seed Technologies, Syngenta Philippines, Bioseed Research Philippines, Corteva Agriscience, and Bayer Crop Science, which were given recognition through the corn program coordinators.

For the top yield performers’ category, the yellow corn seed variety DK828S of Bayer Crop Science was hailed as the champion with a yield of 8.47 metric tons per hectare. This was followed by the H102 variety of Bioseed Research Philippines with 7.99 metric tons per hectare and P3585YHR of Corteva Agriscience with 7.75 metric tons per hectare.

The Bayer Crop Science won in the highest net income generated per hectare category with PHP59,513. In second place was the Bioseed Research Philippines, Inc. with PHP57,747 and the PAC 339 of Advanta Seeds Philippines with PHP53,727.

Pampanga Third District Board Member Jun Canlas Jr., chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, cited the importance of holding the corn derby, especially to the farmers in the province.

“Sa pagtutulungan ng pribadong sektor at ng gobyerno, sinisiguro natin na nabibigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga lokal na magsasaka na gumanda ang kanilang ani (Through the collaboration of the private sector and the government, we ensure that the local farmers are given an opportunity to have good harvest),” Canlas said during the event. (PNA)