February 19, 2007

China firm to start farming hybrid corn, rice in the Philippines 

A Chinese company will begin commercial farming of hybrid corn and rice for domestic consumption in several provinces in the country covering 50,000 hectares of farmland.

Fu Hua Co Ltd from Jilin, China, a private firm with backing from Chinese government, will spend P1.3 billion (US$27.05 million) this year for the project.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) vice president and former Philippine agricultural attach¡§¦ to China William Co said the company has been in the country since 2004 conducting high technology testing and plans to go on full-blast operations in 2007.

Co said the initial amount would be used mainly for farm inputs in pilot provinces of Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac and Cagayan Valley.

Out of the total farmland, the firm plans to allot 30,000 hectares for hybrid corn and 20,000 hectares for hybrid rice. The total land area would be under a lease contract arrangement.

Fu Hua's project is among those formalised during the meeting of President Gloria Arroyo and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Cebu last month.

Co said the output of the project would be sold domestically and would be enough to cover the shortage of corn in the country.

On the average, a hectare of land planted with hybrid corn could have an output of eight to 10 tonnes, he added.

With this, Co said, the 30,000-hectare farmland that Fu Hua will be cultivating for hybrid corn will yield up to 300,000 metric tons of the crop, the same amount that the Philippines imported last year.