SEED COMPANIES in the Philippines are getting interested in introducing colored corn for the production of ears for boiling. These include varieties with purple, red and combinations of red or purple and white. The companies which are trying to introduce the colored varieties are conducting their own field trials to find out how these colored varieties perform under Philippine conditions. Shown in photo is one such colored variety under trial by the Allied Botanical Corporation in its experimental farm in Tayug, Pangasinan.

Aside from Allied Botanical, East-West Seed has been conducting trials of colored corn, including blackish, red and bicolor varieties. So far, however, it is the white waxy corn that farmers are now planting commercially.