October 25, 2012

Massive corn planting begins in  Western Mindanao

The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) is embarking on a massive corn-planting program in nine municipalities and one city covering some 1,300 hectares in Western Mindanao.

DA's Regional Corn Coordinator Felizardo Salomes said the programme is aimed to produce at least an average yield of 3 tons per hectare or a total production of 3,900 tonnes of white corn grains in support to the Food Staple Sufficiency Program of the DA.

The areas identified for corn planting are Diplahan, Imelda and Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay province; Dapitan City and Polanco, Zamboanga del Norte; and Bayog, Lakewood, Tukuran, Mahayag and Dumingan, Zamboanga del Sur.

The corn-planting program will be launched in the target areas in December this year and in January next year, Salomes said.

The seeds for the program will be provided by the Production Support Services Component of the Agri-Pinoy Corn Program under its seed-exchange subsidy, Salomes said.

He said that five packs of Bio-N seed inoculant will be given out per bag of corn seeds to minimize input requirements, particularly urea.

He said the Zamboanga peninsula is generally sufficient in white corn for human consumption and it can address high demand for white corn in Central Visayas as there are more Cebuanos whose staple is corn.

He said that in terms of market access, corn can be transported to Cebu via the ports of Sindangan and Liloy towns and Dipolog City in Zamboanga del Norte.

He said water may be the limiting factor in other areas but water supply is just adequate even in the absence of rain in the 10 identified areas in the region.

Harvest falls on the dry months and post-harvest is not a problem and the advantage of off-season production is that price is high due to the scarcity of supply, Salomes concludes, adding that this will provide better income for the farmers.