The East-West Seed put up a showcase of various vegetable varieties at the Villar Sipag Farm School in Bacoor, Cavite intended for the visit of participants in the 25th Asian Seed Congress.Here in pictures are some of the interesting varieties gathered by your blogger, Zac B. Sarian.

PURPLE SWEET is both a waxy and a sweet corn. It is soft, glutinous or waxy and sweet. The kernels are purple and white. Holding the ears is Gabrielle Parungao, a corn breeder. She says the ears are big (about a kilo per 3 ears). It is popularly sold along the road in Pangasinan going to Baguio.

DOUBLE EAR WAXY CORN. Two ears of about the same size develop in one corn stalk. The variety is tricolor -yellow, white and purple – and it is nice to eat because it is waxy. It is something new.

NINI RUBIA ENRIQUE from the office of Sen. Cynthia Villar shows ears of both the Double Ear Waxy Corn and the Purple Sweet which is sweet and waxy bicolor variety.


NINI RUBIA ENRIQUE is posing with a promising new sweet corn variety from East-West Seed. She is from the office of Sen Cynthia Villar.

KATHERINE PANERGAYO is all smiles as she poses with ZIVI F1 Eggplant. It is extremely prolific and the fruits are big, some weighing 150 grams each. The fruit has white flesh with just a few seeds. It is the favorite in China.In the Philippines it could be recommended for hotels and restaurants that serve Chinese dishes. Because it is fleshy and with few seeds, Katherine says it has shorter shelf life than favorite varieties in the Philippines.

DAVIKA is a small round eggplant that is eaten raw in Thailand. The immature fruits are sliced and dipped in salad dressing or salsa. It is crisp and nice to eat raw.


MILKY BALL, is white eggplant, small like Davika. It is also eaten raw in Thailand, sliced and dipped in salad dressing or salsa. It can be served in a platter with other sliced veggies like cucumber, carrots and the like.

ARLENE VALMADRID is assigned to breed legumes like string beans or sitao. Next year they will be releasing two selections that are resistant to virus and rust diseases. These are Matikas and Makisig. Let’s watch for their release.