White corn gives Cagayan farmers a way to survive after years of debt and losses from floods
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By Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel
CAGAYAN – For decades, Crecencia B. Garan has been planting yellow corn in the river plains of Alcala, Cagayan – only to watch most of her earnings go back to the middle.the men who financed him in the middlehe puts.
Each planting season left the 67-year-old Filipino deep in debt, and each flood that swept through his impoverished community wiped out any remaining gains.
“With yellow corn, we bear all the costs, and we usually borrow from middlemen,” he told reporters invited by the Department of Agriculture in Alcala on Dec. 5 in Filipino. “What we earn ends up being used to pay our debts.”
Today, Mrs. Garan says he is finemaking money in the same world. He is part of a small but growing group of farmers switching to white corn, a variety grown for domestic consumption but now fetching high prices and attracting steady buyers as Alcala tries to consolidate its corn economy.
Although yellow corn is a food and industrial crop, white corn is eaten directly and fetches high farmgate prices – P35 to P45 per kilo, almost double the P18 farmers usually get for yellow corn.
Planted alongside the yellow variety, white corn has become a second source of income that helps farmers offset losses in the faltering yellow corn market.
Input access also changed the equation. Seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are provided by government programs that push the cultivation of white corn, while the municipal processing plant of Alcala buys the crop and passes it on to institutional buyers.
“Because of the white corn, we earn a lot because of the high prices,” said Ms. Garan. “Farmers also get fertilizers and pesticides for free, and we can borrow tractors and rotavators.”
Farmers in Alcala have long relied on yellow corn, which is planted on more than 4,200 hectares and sold to livestock farmers and feed mills in Cagayan Valley.
That model began to unravel after Typhoon Ulysses struck in 2020, sending floodwaters into the province and destroying P52 million worth of crops and livestock in Alcala alone.
Municipal agronomist Vincent C. Espejo said that many years of herbicide use in the yellow corn fields has contributed to the loss of crops and soil erosion, which complicates the impact of floods.
Local officials began looking for crops that required fewer chemicals and encouraged more hand weeding — conditions that pointed to white corn.
“We have about 4,200 hectares planted with yellow corn, and almost all of them use herbicide,” said Mr. Espejo in Filipino. “The local government has decided to take white corn because it does not use herbicide.”
Today, about 100 hectares of Alcala are planted with white corn, which produces about 170 metric tons per cycle.
The changes required deliberate intervention. During the first harvest, the city government had to buy white corn because there were no buyers yet.
“We bought it for P25 per kilo and sold it for P20 per kilo,” said Mr. Espejo. “The LGU (local government unit) will lose, and that didn’t last.”
That experience led to the creation of the Alcala Product Center, which now buys white corn, processes part of it, and connects farmers with institutional buyers.
One of them is delicacy maker Nacho King, who sells at P45 per kilo and has a monthly demand of up to 10 metric tons, according to Alcala Agriculture.fsnow.
‘BIG BROTHER’
The purchase of this plant reaches about 30 tons per harvest cycle. About 3 tons are converted into products made from corn – noodles, coffee, corn flakes and corn rice – sold at grocery stores, trade shows and pasalubong stores, access to markets as far as Manila and Palawan.
The Alcala Fine Producers Cooperative, which runs the facility, uses what it calls “big brother, little brother” to support farmers.
“We are our brother, and they are our little brother,” said associate manager Jennifer M. Pagaduan told Filipino reporters. “We help them process and market their products. They no longer have to find buyers themselves.”
For farmers like Belly A. Duruin, president of the White Farmers Association, a combination of input assistance, access to machinery and market guarantees has changed their outlook.
“This is a big help for us farmers,” he said in Filipino. “Because of planting white corn, our income increased.
However, expansion remains slow. Of Alcala’s more than 4,000 hectares of corn, only about 100 hectares have been converted to white corn. Habits, market familiarity, and yield variability continue to focus farmers on yellow corn.
“White corn works hard,” said Mr. Espejo separately BusinessWorld. “Unlike yellow corn, which only needs to be sprayed with herbicide, white corn needs to be washed by hand.”
White corn yields about 2 metric tons per hectare, less than half of the usual 5 tons for yellow corn. And although white corn commands high prices, its market is small. Yellow corn is always easy to sell – traders and livestock farmers will pick it up directly from the farms.
The processing center has reached its limit. Drying equipment is not available, and the city still lacks proper storage space for large volumes.
Despite the obstacles, Alcala sees momentum changing. As more consumers explore white corn for snacks and other food products, farmers are finding demand that didn’t exist a few years ago.
“If the demand for white corn increases, production will increase. Before, consumers could only get yellow corn, but now producers are available,” said Mr. Espejo.
The local government aims to increase the cultivation of white corn to 20% of Alcala’s corn land – about 800 hectares – within five years.
It is expected that the demand for locally grown white corn will continue to increase as processors and food manufacturers seek alternative ingredients and as consumers explore alternatives to the staple food.
Meanwhile, farmers like Ms. Garan say white corn has changed their lives. After decades of borrowing from traders, he says he no longer ends each harvest season in debt.
“We are not losing anymore. We are earning more now.”
