Corn board leads effort to draw up corn roadmap

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will work hand in hand with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Corn Competitiveness Board to draw up a roadmap for the local corn industry.

In a recent presentation to Trade Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, NCCB chairman Doris Magaysay-Ho presented a background on the National Grains Highway Program.

The objectives of the program is to increase local corn supply and lower production cost through production efficiency and decrease post-harvest losses.

However, according to Ho, the objectives of the program can only be achieved with the hope of private sector investments especially in drying facilities, storage and transport.

Thus, the overall vision of the National Grains Highway Program is for an integrated approach from farm production to transport and marketing to make local corn prices more competitive.

Based on the presentation, Purisima noted that the DTI could help the corn industry in terms of coordinating with small and medium enterprises for the possible integration of corn production with livestock raising.

At present, Ho revealed, most of the country’s corn production is in Mindanao. The corn then has to be transported to Luzon where most of the hog and poultry growers are located.