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By Von Andrei E. Villamiel
CAGAYAN – For decades, Cresenia B. Garan planted yellow corn in the river plains of Alcala, Cagayan – only to see most of his earnings go back to the middlethe men who financed it Inputs.
Each planting season plunged the 67-year-old Filipino into debt, and each flood destroyed whatever profits were left in the low-lying area.
“For yellow corn, we bear all the expenses, and we often borrow from middlemen,” he told reporters invited by the Department of Agriculture in Alcala on Dec. 5 in Filipino. “Whatever we earn is used to pay off our debts.”
Today, Ms. Garan says she is fiJust earning money from that land. He is part of a small but emerging group of farmers who are cultivating white corn, a variety that has long been grown for home consumption but is now fetching high prices and attracting steady buyers as Alcala tries to get its corn economy back on track.
While yellow corn is a feed and industrial crop, white corn is eaten directly and commands a higher price – P35 to P45 per kilo, which is almost double the P18 farmers usually get for yellow corn.
Grown alongside the yellow variety, white corn has become an important second source of income that helps farmers absorb losses from the more volatile yellow corn market.
Input access has also changed the equation. Seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides are provided by government programs promoting the planting of white corn, while Alcalá's municipal processing center purchases the crop and delivers it to institutional buyers.
“Because of the white corn, we earn more because of the higher prices,” Ms. Garan said. “Farmers also get free fertilizers and pesticides, and we can borrow tractors and rotavators.”
Farmers in Alcala have long depended on yellow corn, which is grown on more than 4,200 hectares and sold to livestock producers and feed millers in the Cagayan Valley.
That model began to break down after Typhoon Ulysses struck in 2020, sending floodwaters across the province and destroying about P52 million worth of crops and livestock in Alcala alone.
Municipal agronomist Vincent C. Espejo said years of heavy herbicide use in yellow corn fields contributed to vegetation loss and soil erosion, worsening the effects of flooding.
Local officials began looking for crops that required fewer chemicals and encouraged more manual weeding – conditions that pointed them toward white corn.
“We have about 4,200 hectares planted with yellow corn and almost all of them use herbicide,” Mr. Espejo said in Filipino. “The local government decided to adopt white maize because it does not use herbicides.”
Today, about 100 hectares of white maize are planted in Alcalá, producing about 170 metric tons per cycle.
The changes required deliberate intervention. During the first harvest, the city government had to buy white maize because there were no buyers yet.
“We bought it at P25 per kilo and sold it at P20 per kilo,” Mr. Espejo said. “The LGU (local government unit) will suffer losses, and it will not be sustainable.”
That experience led to the creation of the Alcala Produce Center, which now buys white corn, processes a portion of it, and connects farmers with institutional buyers.
According to Alcala's Agriculture, one of them is snack manufacturer Nacho King, which buys at P45 per kilo and has a monthly requirement of up to 10 metric tons.Fsnow.
'elder brother'
The centre's procurement reaches about 30 metric tonnes per crop cycle. Roughly 3 tons are turned into corn-based products – noodles, coffee, corn grits and corn rice – sold at groceries, trade fairs and pasalubong The stores are reaching markets as far away as Manila and Palawan.
The Alcala Fine Producers Cooperative, which manages the center, uses a “big-brother, little-brother” setup to support growers.
“We are the big brothers, and they are the little brothers,” cooperative manager Jennifer M. Pagaduan told reporters in Filipino. “We help them process and market their products. They no longer have to find buyers themselves.”
White Corn Growers Association President, Bailey A. For farmers like Duruin, a mix of input assistance, equipment access and market guarantees has changed their outlook.
“This is a big help for us farmers,” he said in Filipino. “Our income increased because of growing white maize. Now we do not suffer losses.”
Still, expansion remains slow. Of Alcalá's more than 4,000 hectares of corn land, only about 100 hectares have shifted to white corn. Habits, market familiarity and yield differences are attracting farmers to yellow corn.
“White corn is more labor intensive,” Mr. Espejo explained separately. businessworld“Unlike yellow corn, which requires only herbicide spraying, white corn requires manual weeding,”
White corn yields about 2 metric tons per hectare, less than half the typical 5 tons of yellow corn. And although white corn prices are high, its market is small. Yellow corn is still easy to sell – traders and cattle farmers will pick it straight from the fields.
The processing center has also reached its limit. Drying equipment is scarce, and the city still lacks a proper warehouse for large quantities.
Despite the obstacles, Alcala sees a change in momentum. As more buyers look for white corn for snacks and other food products, farmers are finding demand that didn't exist just a few years ago.
“When demand for white maize increases, production will also increase. Previously, buyers could only find yellow maize, but now producers are available,” Mr Espejo said.
The local government aims to expand the planting of white corn to 20% of Alcalá's corn land – about 800 hectares – within five years.
The expectation is that demand for locally grown white corn will continue to grow as processors and food manufacturers search for unique ingredients and consumers seek alternatives to traditional staples.
For now, farmers like Ms. Garan say white corn has already changed their lives. After decades of borrowing from middlemen, she says she no longer ends each harvest season in debt.
“Now we don't suffer losses. Now we earn more.”