Little help from friends! Planting Trials For Wheat, Barley Start In Mindanao

A 75-year-old Texas-based company which breeds and propagates different varieties of food and feed grains will conduct scientific trials on the propagation of Wheat and Barley in the Philippines before the end of this year.
The Scott Seed Company of Hereford, Texas, jointly owned by brothers Coby and Chad Kriegshauser, offered to help the Philippines produce its own Wheat and Barley to start with the development of Pilot Farms.
They will undertake the experimental project in partnership with a new agricultural company which I and outgoing Senator Panfilo Lacson have formed, along with three other friends.
It has long been believed that Wheat, the main material in flour-making used in baking bread, and Barley could not be grown in tropical areas like the Philippines.
This is the main reason why the Philippines had been wholly dependent on importation, bringing in about 7.5-million metric tons of Wheat and $4-M worth of Barley annually.
This age-old myth was brushed off by Coby Kriegshauser who said that Scott Seed Company had been growing Wheat and Barley in tropical countries like Mexico and Costa Rica.
Coby, his son Barry, his brother Chad and the plant breeder of Scott Seed Company, Polish-American Chuck Selensky, will be coming to the Philippines by the end of August to launch the Wheat and Barley Experimental Planting.
My friendship with the Kriegshauser Family started when I visited Texas in 2018 in an exploratory trip to assess the potentials of Sorghum farming in the Philippines for our feed grains production.
Scott Seed Company donated P5-M worth of Sorghum Seeds to the Mindanao Development Authority when I moved from the DA to MinDA.
These were planted successfully in the different parts of Mindanao and will now be propagated commercially mainly in the SOCKSARGEN Region.
In the Wheat and Barley trials, I have identified two State Universities as possible sites for this experiment, my Alma Mater, the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, North Cotabato, and the Central Mindanao University in Maramag, Bukidnon.
Coby, in my recent visit to Texas, said that they will be using several Wheat and Barley varieties to determine which would adapt and perform well under Philippines conditions.
“Plant genetics is now so advanced that we could breed Wheat, Barley or Sorghum which would be able to adapt to a specific location and climate,” Selensky, a 30-year veteran in plant breeding, told me recently.
Successful trials of Wheat and Barley would really boost the Philippine economy as this could reduce our country’s dependence on importation and provide our farmers a new option in agriculture.
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!
#ApplyingScienceInFarming!
(Photos of Wheat and Barley were downloaded from public websites while the photos of the Kriegshauser family with me and plant breeder Chuck Selensky were taken by Winchell Campos in Texas during our recent visit.)