DAVAO, Philippines -- We met some of the most enterprising lady farmers during our visit to Mindanao last Friday. Some started very young and continue to be farmers even after finishing college.

One of them is Josephine Roquero who looks more like an office girl and not a hands-on farmer and businesswoman. Actually, she says that her mother taught her to grow corn and other crops even while she was young. She said that her mother was the farmer in the family while her father was engaged in buy-and-sell business.

Now married to a retired soldier, she takes care of 20 hectares planted to Bioseed Healer 101, a new variety of GMO corn. She says this is high-yielding and is more convenient to produce because one does not have to spray pesticide to control corn borer, a major corn pest. This corn is not damaged by herbicide even if it is sprayed with the weedkiller while spraying to kill the weeds.

Aside from managing the 20 hectares (10 hectares mortgaged to her) she also finances more than a hundred farmers planting corn on about 300 hectares. She is also into corn trading so she is really busy. She has five trucks doing the hauling and delivery of corn stocks.

Her husband who is a retired soldier also farms but he is into rice. He manages his own brand of rice farming while Josephine takes care of corn.

Eunice Sumagka is a younger sister of Josephine who is also into corn planting. Last cropping season she planted Healer 101 on 10 hectares her family owns and three hectares mortgaged to her.

Eunice says that it is profitable to plant the Healer variety. In a 1.5- hectare farm that she planted with this variety last season, she made a net of P88,500. The expenses that amounted to P55,000 included the cost of seeds, land preparation, fertilizers, pesticide (herbicide), labor, harvesting, hauling and marketing to Davao City. The 1.5-hectare farm yielded 9.7 tons of dried grains which she sold at P14.80 per kilo. The grains com¬manded a premium price because they were first class.

Eunice said that her first experience with Healer 101 was three croppings ago. That time Bioseed gave her five kilos of seeds for trial. She recorded all her expenses, including the value of the free seeds. She planted the seeds on one-fourth hectare which gave her 47 bags of corn-on-the cob. She was able to sell her harvest at P28,000 for a net profit of P20,000 from that one-fourth hectare. From then on, she has been planting nothing but Healer 101.

Eunice said that besides Josephine, she has two other sisters who are into corn production. They also learned the business from their mother. A brother is in the same business, too. Only one brother is not in corn production because he is a medical doctor practicing in Manila.

In Brgy. New Pangasinan in Koronadal City we met Remedios Gamit who plants Healer 101 and a few vegetables on two hectares of flat land. She also admits that it is advan¬tageous to grow the GMO corn. The grains are bigger than those of other varieties in the market.

Aside from corn, Remedios makes money from vegetables and calamansi. Another money maker is her cattle which are mestizo Brahmans. She is taking care of four big ones and a heifer. The big ones are at least P35,000 each while the yearling could fetch P17,000.

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AANI FARM TOUR – Those interested to see new developments in agriculture should join the farm tour conducted by Agri-Aqua Network International on March 19. Participants will visit the San Benito Farm in Lipa City, which is into diversified organic farming. Those interested should make their reservations by visiting the AANI Weekend Market at St. Vincent Seminary on Tandang Sora, Quezon City