DA sticks to corn production target

MANILA, Philippines - The National Corn Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is keeping its production target of 7.8 million metric tons (MMT) for 2012 and is eyeing corn sufficiency by next year.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary and National Corn Program coordinator Edilberto de Luna said the government is expanding areas planted to corn by 5,000 hectares for the September and October planting season. This is expected to add between 2.5 tons to four tons in yield per hectare.  

“Why lower the target? Might as well work to attain the target,” he said in an interview yesterday. “We have just finished the second quarter assessment and there are indications that we can still attain the target.”

The projection by the National Corn Program is slightly higher than that made by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), which expects corn production for year to reach 7.46 MMT, higher by seven percent than last year’s output of 6.97 MMT. 

In the first half of the year, corn production reached 3.47 MMT, 4.8 percent higher than the output in the same period last year. BAS forecasts corn production in the second semester to reach 3.99 MMT based on third quarter standing crop and planting intentions of farmers in the fourth quarter.

De Luna noted that even at 7.46 MMT, this will be a record harvest from 7.1 MMT in 2001.

Based on the 2011-2017 Corn Industry Development Roadmap, the government intends to increase corn production from 6.97 MMT in 2011 to 10.82 MMT in 2017 and to increase the annual income of farmers by 10 percent per hectare.

The program also aims to attain corn self-sufficiency by 2013.

For 2012, the government expects to attain a sufficiency level of 98 percent with a deficit of 179,000 MT. This is because a small volume of corn requirements for animal feeds are still imported by livestock growers.

For 2013, the government intends to raise corn yield to 8.4 MMT. The government aims to attain a sufficiency level of 101 percent with a surplus of 149,000 MT. To do this, the government should encourage domestic consumption of ingredients for animal feeds.

“This can be attained by increasing production by using hybrid varieties and expanding production areas. We can also lower losses to post-harvest processes,” said De Luna. 

The government is also eyeing several intervention strategies such as the provision of production support services, irrigation development, post-harvest development services, marketing development services, as well as education and training for farmers.

A budget of P950 million is allocated for the National Corn Program this year.

For 2013, it will be raised to P1.5 billion to include support for the cultivation of cassava, which is used as an additive for animal feeds.