Women Farmers Grow Hybrid Corn
Women are enterprising and they also make good farmers. Just like two women from Brgy. Posnaan, Aguinaldo, Ifugao. who have been growing one of the latest corn hybrids called Healer 101.
They are Julie Tinong, 36, and Isabel Cauelan, 63. Julie has been taking charge of growing corn in their two hectare-farm. Since she got married in 1994, she has been planting corn and had experienced growing the old varieties. Two years ago, she was introduced to Healer 101 and swears, this is the best variety she has tried so far.
In her latest dry season crop, she got an average of 120 cavans (56 kg per cavan) per hectare which she sold at P12.90 to P13 per kilo. She got a very good profit because she only spent P20,000 cash per hectare. She attributes the low cash expense to the fact that her four children helped her in land preparation, planting and other farm chores.
Julie loves the big kernels of Healer 101 which are bright orange, a color desired by feedmillers. The ear has a slender cob so kernel recovery is high.
Isabel Cauelan, 63, is another enterprising woman corn farmer also from Julie’s barangay. She started farming in 1987 and has been growing corn since then. A widow for 14 years, she has been planting Bioseed’s Healer 101 on three hectares for three years now.
She treats corn production as a business. She hires a tractor to prepare her farm for planting. Her cost of production is P25,000 per hectare. She usually harvests 120 cavans per hectare, especially during the dry season crop.
Sometimes, though, disaster strikes. When flood and typhoon struck and damaged her standing corn, she got only 49 cavans (dried). That was the lowest yield she ever got but she still managed to make a small profit. That’s one good thing about Healer 101, she said. It can survive some of the worst natural disasters.