Philippines corn queen

From a lonely, struggling Filipino mother who talks about rice and rice, Rosallie M. Ellasus has raised three grown children to achieve her achievements in biotechnology to be dubbed the "Corn Queen" and "Corn Ambassador of Asia".

Different from the image of a farmer in the minds of many people, Rosallie M. Ellasus makes many newcomers think of a wealthy businessman. 54 years old, Rosallie owns bright eyes, she wears a skirt, wears high heels, light makeup, speaks fluently in English. She is often the representative of the Philippines to attend many conferences related to genetic change and every time surprised the delegates by the persuasive lecture on biotechnology, especially the way to get rich with trees. Genetically modified plants.

Before working as a farmer, Rosallie used to work in Singapore as a maid. In 1995, her husband died leaving three young children, Rosallie was forced to return to the Philippines. When looking for a very difficult job, she decided to work in agriculture. Spending all the money to buy 1.3 hectares of land in San Jacinto, she wishes to raise children to study at one of the country's good universities.

"Now that I think about it, I still feel like a dream, because at that time I didn't have any knowledge or any knowledge about plants , " Rosallie said.

Ms. Rosallie M. Ellasus in a conference on genetically modified crops in Indonesia.(Photo: Huong Thu)

At first, the profit she earned from growing corn was only about 100 USD / year; Corn fields are continuously pestilent, very difficult to consume."I still remember my desperate feeling when corn fields were not sold to anyone , " Rosallie said.

In order to improve crop productivity, in 2001, Rosallie participated in farmer training on integrated pest management on maize. Thanks to these applications, her corn productivity and quality began to increase.

In 2002 she had the opportunity to visit with some other farmers to learn and experience at Pangasinan, where the first genetically modified corn in the Philippines was planted. "This is the moment that marked the turning point of my life , " Rosallie said.

"Looking at the genetically modified corn field is different from regular corn, I and many others yearn to be able to own corn fields like that," Rosallie said. However, when she first saw this corn, she did not believe much about the resistance to pests, especially stem borers. "Why is it so different , " Rosallie questioned by the corn grain with beautiful and firm grains - the wish of many corn farmers.

By the time she knew the secret of the rapid growth of biotechnology, Rosallie had become a pioneer in growing genetically modified corn as soon as she returned to her locality, she added.

In November 2002, Rosallie began deploying a genetically modified corn demonstration site and immediately reaped the fruits. She also propagated the advantages of genetically modified corn to other farmers and received support from them. In 2005, Rosallie also pioneered the cultivation of insect-resistant transgenic corn and herbicide.

"Growing genetically modified corn does not require any technology, previous weeding pressure is no longer available, it does not cost money to buy pesticides and hiring workers to spray, profits are up to more than 40%" , she said. Besides, farmers are not affected by the chemicals from pesticides.

"Thanks to genetically modified corn, I raised my three children to eat, so they graduated from the University well and the life of the whole family was stable," she said.

There is no denying that the price of genetically modified corn is about 3% more expensive than conventional corn, but from 2001 to 2008, corn production in her 1.3 ha field doubled from 3.5 tons to 7 tons. Currently, the area of ​​maize owned by her employer is up to 13 hectares with an output of nearly 9 tons / ha."Except for all costs, every hectare brings me about $ 2,000 a year, which is about $ 24,000 a year," Rosallie said.

"Philippines farmers have no objections to growing genetically modified corn. They are even waiting for eggplant plants to be commercialized by officials," Rosallie added.

With the successes achieved, Rosallie is called "Corn Queen" and "Asian Corn Ambassador". Rosallie said it will continue to advance the application of biotechnology into agriculture.

She is not only a farmer, but also a true scientist, leader and entrepreneur. In 2007, she won the best female female farmer award in her efforts to breed. Since 2001, Ms. Rosalia has been President of the Philippines Corn Association, Vice Chairman of the National Corn Cooperative Union.