THEORETICAL CROSSES WITH PHILIPPINE MAIZE STRAINS
Food security is something that should concern us as a people. Dependence on rice, without the corresponding ability to grow a sufficient amount of it, will render us vulnerable to international rice price increases and availability.
Rice is notoriously unsuited to our geography—there simply aren’t enough, wide open flood plains. Where they do exist, irrigation is inadequate. With our growing population, it is simply too difficult to support it using rice alone. It is thus in our interest if we found a crop that we could use to partially replace rice.
How about corn?
The Philippines is self-sufficient in corn (zea Mays). We grow lots of it and it is the second most important crop here next to rice.
Corn here is generally used to make animal feed. Very little of it goes into our diet compared to rice. * I estimate that if more corn were used for human consumption (or if it would be used to replace rice altogether), then it’s very possible that we won't need to import rice from other countries.
Corn Fit for Human Consumption
Part of actually getting people to eat corn directly, rather than to grow it as an animal feed is to actually have varieties of corn fit for human consumption—this is where Hopi corn comes in!
This is also a flour corn, which means that this is very suitable for making corn flour or cornmeal. It is also very good for gritting. The corn we normally grow for feed is flint corn, which as the name implies is very hard and is simply not suitable for human consumption.
Desirable traits
The Hopi Indian tribe has been growing a specific variety of Maize (Zea mays) in the Arizona desert for thousands of years. Their agricultural techniques are very well suited to the dry and hot desert (with its occasional flashfloods!) climate of the American Southwest.
Hopi Corn
Years of selective breeding has created a corn variety which can withstand heat and flashfloods. It grows a very deep root system and its seeds are necessarily rich in energy. The Hopi grow their corn by burying the seed 1 feet deep in the arid soil. The video below shows how the Hopi cultivate their corn.
(Source: this video was originally found in Encarta encyclopedia)
Amazingly, the plant is still able to sprout in spite of being buried so deep. These adaptations give this strain a great many advantages specifically:
- Because the seed was buried so deeply, the roots have access to moisture locked deep within the subsoil.
- Because the root system is buried so deep, the plant can withstand harsh winds and flashfloods that happen in the desert.
- The roots do not compete for nutrients with other plants.
These are highly desirable traits which if crossed with Philippine varieties of corn could very well produce a very well-adapted hybrid. Specifically, this can potentially be the basis of a maintenance-free strain of corn—one that doesn’t need irrigation or weeding and can withstand typhoons!
This hybrid will also fit in with the corn culture in the Philippines. Philippine corn often grow corn during the dry season in a dried up rice paddy—the corn is harvested before the rains come and after which, rice will be replanted. Hopi corn will suit this kind of crop rotation superbly. The corn is planted deep in the soil, so the roots are getting their nutrients from the subsoil. This means that the corn will not compete for nutrients with the next crop of rice which has shallow root systems and thus get their nutrients from the topsoil. This way, the rice paddy's topsoil gets a full season's rest before the next crop.
El Niño
It goes without saying that the world is due for a massive drought caused by this weather anomaly called El Niño. A corn variety such as this will be able to thrive in the changing climate that we are experiencing today.
Conclusion
I understand that rice is culturally ingrained in the Filipino psyche—we all understand that a meal isn’t a meal if there isn’t rice on the table—but sometimes, solving problems such as food security may require some dietary changes. Corn, as a rice replacement holds some potential, indeed, the Philippines is already more successful in self-sufficiency when it comes to corn than with rice. The introduction of corn which is fit for human consumption, and which contain traits that would suit it to adverse climates can go a long way to solving our food security problems. To that end, I strongly recommend conducting hybridization experiments with Hopi heirloom corn.
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*Filipinos do have some tasty corn-based treats like roasted corn, binatog and a local favorite is baye-baye. I hear Boholanos also mix corn into their rice as a filler.
