August 29, 2012

 

 

The Philippines is keeping its production target of 7.8 million tonnes of corn for 2012 and is hopeful of corn sufficiency in 2013.

 

According to Edilberto Luna, assistant secretary of the Department of Agriculture and National Corn Program coordinator said the government is expanding areas planted to corn by 5,000 hectares for the September and October planting season. This is expected to add between 2.5 tonnes to four tonnes in yield per hectare.

 

Luna is confident of meeting the target based on their second quarter assessment.

 

The projection of the National Corn Program is slightly higher than that made by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics which expects corn production for year to reach 7.46 million tonnes, higher by seven percent than last year's output of 6.97 million tonnes.

 

In the first half of 2012, corn production reached 3.47 million tonnes, 4.8% higher than the output in the same period last year. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics forecasts corn production in the second semester to reach 3.99 million tonnes based on the third quarter standing crop and planting intentions of farmers in the fourth quarter.

 

De Luna noted that even at 7.46 million tonnes, this will be a record harvest from 7.1 million tonnes in 2001.

 

Based on the 2011-2017 Corn Industry Development Roadmap, the government intends to increase corn production from 6.97 million tonnes in 2011 to 10.82 million tonnes in 2017 and to increase annual income of farmers by 10% per hectare.

 

The programme also aims to attain corn self-sufficiency by 2013.

 

For 2012, the government expects to attain a sufficiency level of 98% with a deficit of 179,000 tonnes. This is because a small volume of corn requirements for animal feeds are still imported by livestock growers.

 

For 2013, the government intends to raise corn yield to 8.4 million tonnes. The government aims to attain a sufficiency level of 101% with a surplus of 149,000 tonnes. To do this, the government should encourage domestic consumption of ingredients for animal feeds.

 

According to De Luna, this can be attained by increasing production by using hybrid varieties and expanding production areas as well as lowering postharvest processes.

 

The government is also eyeing several intervention strategies such as the provision of production support services, irrigation development, postharvest development services, marketing development services and education/training for farmers.

 

A budget of PHP950 million (US$11.80 million) is allocated for the National Corn Program this year and will be raised to PHP1.5 billion (US$35.42 million) in 2013 to include support for the cultivation of cassava, which is used as an additive for animal feeds.