ORMOC CITY – The 2025 Ormoc City Corn Derby Farmer’s Field Day and Harvest Festival was successfully held in Barangay Cagbuhangin, this city, on September 3-5, 2025 under the banner theme, “SIDLAK ORMOC, Sidlak ang Maisan sa Modernong Teknolohiya para sa Bag-ong Pilipinas.”
The said program was orchestrated by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office (DA RFO) 8, in collaboration with the Local Government Unit of Ormoc, through its City Agriculture Department (CAD), for the implementation of the Ormoc City Corn Model Farm Establishment and Adaptive Balanced Fertilization Strategy (ABFS) Technology Derby.
The DA RFO 8’s Corn Program conducted a corn production technology demonstration in the corn cluster through a “Corn Derby.” The activity showcased the increasing corn farm productivity and harvest that was obtained with proper crop management involving the use of high-quality seeds, a balanced fertilization strategy, adequate irrigation water support, proper crop protection, and conformance to other productivity-enhancing protocols.
The derby aims to showcase and promote modern corn production technology to increase productivity (yield) to at least 5 metric tons per hectare (mt/ha.) for yellow corn and 3 mt/ha. for white corn, reduce production cost through farm mechanization, and produce quality yellow and white corn. Moreover, its purpose is to demonstrate the clustering and consolidation approach for increased farm efficiency, economies of scale, and agribusiness.
BFS is a site-specific nutrient management that promotes soil health and fertility and enhances fertilizer use efficiency to maintain and increase soil and crop productivity, which aims to showcase cost-effective technologies that can mitigate the impacts of rising fertilizer costs and increase the level of farmers’ productivity, profitability, and income and bring back soil fertility in the Corn Cluster community. Furthermore, with the full support from private partners, this activity is a co-implementation and co-investment in service delivery for the agriculture sector.
The productive activity was attended by Sangguninag Panlungsod Member Tomas Serafica, Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform; DA RFO 8 Regional Executive Director Andrew Rodolfo Orais; DA RFO 8 Field Operations Division Chief Rodel Macapanas; DA RFO 8 Regional Corn Program Coordinator Leandro Baula; National Corn Program Director Milo Delos Reyes, CESO III; OIC-CAD Dante Albarico; partner agencies, and local farmers. By Gwen Maurillo (EV Mail SEPTEMBER 1-7, 2025 issue)
