The Department of Agriculture Caraga vowed to support government’s effort to lessen the dependence of Filipinos on rice as staple food.
One initiative is to blend rice with corn or the so called Rice Corn Blend (RCB) which was recently launched in Davao City.

DA Caraga is currently coordinating with the local government units to look for areas suitable for the establishment of white corn production as model farm that would showcase to the farmers the viability of flint type white corn production.

Target areas for model farms are cluster areas with strong farmer associations. Other areas can also be tapped as long as potential for flint type corn production.

DA Caraga Regional Corn Coordinator Melody M. Guimary said that preferred sites for the model farm should be compact and not less than 50 hectares.

“The qualified farmers to participate on the model farm will be assisted with interventions such as technical training, inputs, and farm machinery and equipment,” she said.

During the launching in Davao City recently, PhilMaize, a federation of corn farmer associations signed a memorandum of agreement with  the Department of Agriculture and National Food Authority (NFA) for the processing and marketing of the product.

“The RCB is also a business opportunity for cooperatives, association or any private individuals who would like to invest in processing and marketing of the Rice Corn Blend.” Guimary added.

DA Caraga together with LGUs  is currently benchmarking the local demand of flint type white corn in the region to ascertain local marketing opportunities.

According to Provincial Corn Coordinator Oscar Tuyor of Agusan del Norte, blending of rice and corn is not new for him as he is fond of eating such even when he was still a small boy.

“Rice can be blended with corn either on a ratio of 70:30 or 50:50 or depending on the preference of the consumer,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Lydia Apatan, an agricultural extension worker of Nasipit, Agusan del Norte said that Rice-Corn Blend is a welcome initiative of DA.

“Aside from helping lessen the dependency of rice among Filipinos, it is a healthy alternative since corn has low glycemic index and high in fiber,”she said.

Glycemic index is a number associated with the carbohydrates in a particular food that indicates the effect of these carbohydrates on a person’s blood glucose or commonly called blood sugar.

Under the National Corn Staple Development Plan, DA aims to increase production of quality flint corn for nutrition and food security, and increase income of farmers specifically to increase production of flint corn from 1.952M metric ton (MT) in 2017 to 4.91M mt by 2022.

Corn (flint type) serves as staple food of about 15% of the total population mostly in the islands of Visayas and Mindanao in the form of corn grits. (Aurelius P. Arais/DA Caraga)