January-June corn output up 37% to 3.3-M tons

MANILA, Philippines - Local corn production grew by more than a third in the first half of this year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said yesterday.

Edilberto de Luna, DA assistant secretary for field operations and National Corn Program coordinator, said corn production for the first semester of 2011 increased by 36.81 percent to 3.304 million metric tons (MT), from 2.415 million MT in the comparable first six months of 2010.

De Luna attributed the growth to higher yellow corn production which increased by 45.19 percent to 889,000 MT.

He said “the significant increases in production for the period can be attributed to good weather, availability of good varieties, good farmgate prices, and stable prices of inputs.”

De Luna added that the area harvested to corn for January to June this year increased by 14.17 percent from 967,000 hectares in 2010 to 1.1 million hectares.

Yellow corn area grew at a much higher rate of 21 percent than white corn with an expansion of just 6.85 percent, De Luna said.

 Increased farm mechanization and provision of post-harvest facilities also helped to increase yield for both yellow and white corn at 2.99 MT per hectare.

The average yield for white corn is 1.78 MT per hectare, while yellow corn yield averaged 3.99 MT per hectare.

The top five regions that contributed to the growth — both yellow and white corn — were Cagayan Valley (27 percent), SOCCSKSARGEN (14 percent), Northern Mindanao (12 percent), ARMM (12 percent), and the Ilocos Region (11 percent).

De Luna expressed optimism that the DA would attain the national corn production target of 7.26 million MT for 2011.

The government, as part of the rice self-sufficiency and food sufficiency program, is keen on increasing corn production for 2012 to ease the demand for rice.

The National Government plans to double the subsidy for the National Corn Program to P951 million in 2012, from P484 million this year, in order to hit the target production of 7.6 million MT.

Most of the increase in the program budget, or 75 percent, will be used for post-harvest facilities to stabilize white corn grain supply as part of a plan to support palay output.