Bt corn likes El Niño

El Niño is not all bad news.

Take the genetically modified (GM) crop Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn.

This transgenic crop, which has become popular among many farmers across the country, feels at home under El Niño (warm) conditions.

Listen to retired Philippine Army general Marcelo Blando of Sta. Maria, Pangasinan, who has observed in his long and successful farming career that Bt corn crops can withstand and survive the El Niño.

"I have been planting Bt corn in Pangasinan fro the past few years and not a single weather disturbance has affected my crops," he said. "Bt corn has stronger stalks that can withstand erratic weather because of the absence of corn borers."

Another award-winning corn farmer, Jay Narciso of Arayat, Pampanga, attested: "My Bt corn is healthy despite minimal water and fertilizer use."

Narciso, once a "globe-trotter" but now a gentleman farmer, used to plant regular corn hybrids. "But with the ever-growing threat of El Niño, it is but proper for me to shift to a much stronger corn variety," he said.

With the new technology (Bt corn or Yieldgard 818), his yield increased to 10 tons per hectare, improving his income by 30 percent.

Sonny Tababa, administrator of the Los Baños-based SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center (BIC), also explained:

"With less water characterized by drought and erratic and directions as expressed in an El Niño scenario, regular corn stalks attacked by corn borers tend to be weaker due to loss of fibers and nutrients compared to Bt corn, whose stalks are sturdier and stronger and, therefore, have a probability rate of survival against any benign threats of weather disturbances like the El Niño. Corn is drougth-tolerant, that is why it has a higher survival rate. – RAF