September 29, 2009

Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) agreed to maintain its support price of P13 on 250,000 tonnes of corn after farmers staged a protest rally at the agency's regional office in Cagayan de Oro City.

Corn farmers led by Philippine Maize Federation on Friday (Sep 29) also met with Agriculture officials to demand better price for corn.

Corn farmers earlier protested the move of the National Food Authority (NFA) to lower the support price of corn from P13 to P10 a kilo on the first volume of 300,000 tonnes.

The NFA drew up a two-tiered scheme in which it committed to purchase the first 300,000 tonnes of corn at P13 a kilo and the second volume of 300,000 tonnes at P10.

NFA, however, began buying corn for the rest of the first volume at P10 a kilo instead of P13 it earlier committed after purchasing the initial 50,000 tonnes at the higher support price.

The actual support price is P12.30 but the addition of incentives raised the food agency's buying rate to P13 a kilo.

DA secretary Arthur Yap said the lower support price aimed to serve more farmers at a time when market prices were down, adding that the reduced support price was directed at and Region 2 farmer who were about to harvest some 600,000 tonnes in three to four weeks' time.

Yap said the government used an extra allocation to adopt a two-tiered pricing system.

The government has relaxed the quality requirements on corn to enable more farmers to sell their stocks to the food agency. Farmers had complained that the rainy season had made it difficult for them to dry their stocks and meet the standards of NFA.

US$1 = P47.348 (Sep 29)