Starting fresh with yet another day of wonderful and memorable Pista’y Baley celebrations, the agriculture-focused ‘Pinaka-’ Contest that featured unusually shaped vegetables was held at the Pangasinan State University (PSU) grounds on Tuesday, March 28.

The event starred the proudly Bayambang-produced corn and onion. It presented absurdly large nurtured onions, the heaviest corns, as well as the fastest decobbing, corn shucking, onion skin peeling, and chopping.

The 4th District farmers triumphed in the Heaviest Corns category, with their corns weighing 2 kgs. The shucking of 150 corns came next, which was won by the 1st District having the time of 8 minutes and 31 seconds. Corn de-kernelling win was claimed by the 2nd District. Moreover, the heaviest and largest onion was weighted 2.9 kgs and was measured 25.4 cm, proudly nurtured from the farms of the 7th District.

Additionally, the farmers were never silent at the onion skin peeling, and chopping as three contestants, Districts 2, 3, and 6, tied — with the time of two minutes — making all of them take the first spot.

Prior to the program, a presentation was led by Marivic Amiscua from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), discussing things related to agri-aqua culture. A mini quiz bee ensued right after the presentation, having souvenir shirts as prize.

In between events, a representative of Rachel “Baby” Arenas, Jessica Guico, delivered a heartwarming speech. “Kahit na kalugi-lugi na, susulong at susulong pa ‘rin,” she said. They also donated 20 knapsack sprayers given as raffles to fairly distribute the farm equipment. She also stated to have given two hand tractors to the same sets of people prior to the event.

Official awarding of winners with certificates and prizes will be on April 3, Monday.

(Photos by: John Orville P. Quinto, SVCSBI)