AgriNurture adds unique rice-corn blend to portfolio

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture trading firm AgriNurture Inc. (ANI) has inked a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) for the importation of raw materials to produce the “BigMa” (bigas-mais or rice-corn) blend.

PITC is the government’s import-export arm under the Department of Trade and Industry.

ANI president and CEO Antonio Tiu said the volume to be imported is still being worked out.

Through its contract growers, ANI will produce local corn which will be blended with rice to include BigMa in its portfolio of food products.

BigMa is a unique, low-glycemic rice-corn blend rich in dietary fiber. It is touted as a healthier staple-food alternative for Filipinos.

“With the production of BigMa, ANI can help reduce carbon footprint and conserve our water resources since corn needs less water to grow,” Tiu said.

“It will also provide more livelihood to local corn farmers and help the country achieve food sufficiency, while providing a healthier and affordable option to the public,” he said.

Annualized rice field is only about 4.5 million hectares yielding less than four metric tons of wet paddy per hectare on average. Water footprint per kilogram of paddy is more than 3,000 liters while corn is less than 1,000 liters.

ANI will work with indigenous peoples (IPs) in Mindanao to produce corn.

Data showed that about 7.7 million hectares are occupied by IPs, or 26 percent of the country’s total land area of 30 million hectares.

As of 2019, National Comission on Indigenous People  (NCIP) issued 243 certificates of ancestral domain titles with a total land area of 5.7 million hectares and a total of 1.3 million IPs as rights holders.

As more consumers grow accustomed to BigMa, Tiu said the introduction of the rice-corn blend would be a big boost to local corn production.