August 17, 2004

 


San Miguel Corp Reaps 500 MT Soybean In Surigao, Plans Expansion

 

Soybean farmers in Surigao del Sur linked up with San Miguel Corp. (SMC) harvested in July 500 metric tons (MT) of soybean on a 200-hectare land which is expected to become a take-off point for the expansion of soybean planting on 5,000 hectares all over the Philippines.

 

Nelson C. Buenaflor, president and chief executive officer of Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (QRCGC), said that farmers in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur reaped a relatively high yield of 2.5 MT per hectare from the area compared to just around one to two MT per hectare yield of soybean in many places in the country.

 

The productivity, he said, is brought about by the rich soil.

 

"The soil there is like sandy loam. The Tago River runs up to San Miguel and its water overflows just before planting. The soil is also fertile because soybean has not been planted here for a long time even if Nestle used to plant soybean there," he said in an interview.

 

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has been setting a soybean planting roadmap as soybean price in the world market has increased in light of the general rising trend on the price of feed grains such as corn and wheat.

 

Buenaflor said buying price of traders goes to as high as R49 per kilo for the soybean which is used as an ingredient for the soybean-based delicacy "taho."

 

The Surigao farmers have direct marketing agreement with SMC which may use the crop as feed ingredient. However, instead of using all the harvest as feed ingredient, 200 MT of the soybean will be used for seed production.

 

"The seeds still have to go through processing. Then these will be used for planting of soybean on 5,000 hectares in identified areas all over the country, The 200 tons may be used on 7,000 hectares, but our initial target is 5,000 hectares," Buenaflor said.

 

He said one hectare of soybean farm needs 25 kilos of seeds.

 

QRCGC extends a R10,000 per hectare crop loan to soybean planting. Given the expansion to 5,000 hectares, Buenaflor said the credit firm is willing to expand financing on the entire area.

 

DA's soybean roadmap indicated that the Philippines imports around 300,000 MT of soybean yearly worth $120 million at $400 per MT while it imports some 1.2 million MT of soybean meal and 10,000 MT in soybean oil.

 

While soybean area in Surigao will be planted with another crop next season, corn perhaps, Buenaflor said soybean may still be planted year-round in other areas. The DA roadmap indicated that soybean can be planted in Northern and Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley, Visayas (Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Western Negros, and Panay), and Mindanao (North and South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Compostela, Agusan, Misamis, and Bukidnon).

 

The Philippines' soybean planting once peaked to 12,000 hectares in the 1970s-1980s until this dropped to 1,000 hectares due to the unattractive price of soybean. As one MT yield per hectare, the country's soybean production just totals to 1,000 MT.

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