Corn output up 20% in 1st half
Corn production for the first half this year is expected to reach 3.29 million metric tons, a 20 percent increase from the first half of 2007, the Department of Agriculture (DA) reported yesterday.
The DA forecast is based on production estimates for four regions —
The four regions are projected to post a 20 percent increase in output to 541,000 MT.
The DA said there was a nine-percent increase in hectarage plus a 10 percent increase in average yield.
In a report to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Assistant Secretary Dennis Araullo said the DA’s stepped-up intervention measures under its Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) Corn Program helped growers produce 1.99 million MT from January to March this year, 17 percent more than the 2.75 million-ton output in the same period last year.
Araullo, national coordinator of the GMA Corn Program, said the strong growth of the corn sub-sector would continue in the second quarter with total harvests estimated at 1.3 million MT, 24 percent higher than the output in the same period in 2007.
Projected harvests from April to June this year is expected to be a fifth higher than the DA’s original target of 1.09 million MT for the second quarter, Araullo said.
Araullo said “the dramatic increment in the first quarter was brought about mainly by the increased harvests in yellow corn at 1.51 million MT, indicating a growth rate of 29 percent or an additional 341,000 MT.”
White corn production for the first quarter this year fell 10 percent with an output at 482,000 MT or 53,000 tons lower than the yield in last year’s first quarter, Araullo admitted.
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