DA to farmers: Plant more corn

The Department of Agriculture (DA) through the GMA (Ginintuang Masaganang Ani) Corn Program has advised farmers to plant more corn this cropping season and the next season after that.

Dr. Artemio M. Salazar, GMA-Corn Program director said bigger quantity, top-rate quality and better prices await the corn industry owing to two factors. One is the forecast of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical, Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) that there will be no El Niño or La Niña in the near future, a very good prospect for those who planted in October to November in 2003. The other is the two failed biddings for the 150,000 metric tons of corn imports recently. The causes of the failed biddings were the high price of commodity for the first one and the expensive freight costs for the second in the National Food Authority’s planned importation of yellow corn.

The high price in the world market was brought about by the long dry spell which hit North America, one of the largest producers of corn, soybean and wheat in the world.

"Seldom do these happen in our country’s corn industry, that both price and weather are on our side," said Dr. Salazar. This condition should encourage the corn farmers to plant more to increase their incomes and provide allied industries with ample supply of the commodity.

The corn industry plays an important role in the Philippine economy. Some 20 percent of Filipinos consume corn as staple food. About 70 percent of production is used as the main ingredient in feed milling for the poultry and livestock sub-sector.

To date, there are 300,000 corn farming families with an average landholding of 2.7 hectares per family. A major source of income for 600,000 farm households, corn also provides business opportunities and livelihood to transport services, traders, food and feed processors and agricultural input suppliers.

In 2002, the 4.32 million tons of corn production contributed a gross value added amount of P25.770 billion. Projected output by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics for 2003 will surpass previous year’s performance by some 290,000 metric tons. Total corn production will reach 4.71 million metric tons — 6.7 percent higher than last year’s.

The bright prospects need some strategies in meeting challenges for the corn industry to produce adequate and cheap quality grains while maintaining farmers’ profitability — as well as competitiveness — of the poultry and livestock sector:
1)Grains highway program: Mechanized production, processing and handling;
2) Corn-user-to-producer approach where livestock/ poultry industry are encouraged to move to major corn farming areas to lower transport cost leading to cheap corn and feeds;
3)Infrastructure and production support to achieve price competitiveness;
4) Use of the better Bt corn variety;
5) Grain quality management and post harvest handling;
6) Accessible credit that would render utilization of enough inputs for higher productivity and lower production cost.

Goals and targets of the road map are: reduce logistics from P1.57/kg to P1.26/kg; make the price of corn at par with the landed cost of imported corn with 20 percent tariff; attain 100 percent self-sufficiency in corn from the present 67 percent; reduce production cost to P3/kg or lower from P3.98/kg (standing crop value); control aflatoxin to below 50 parts per billion on 70 percent production; and increase income of farmers to at least P16,000/hectare from P6,807/hectare.