The Department of Agriculture spent PHP 203.6 million (US$4.3 million) to open up 75,000 hectares of new corn fields, during the second and third quarters of this year to increase corn production by 270,000 tonnes.
 

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dennis Araullo said the expansion aims to boost the chances of the Philippines to meet its yield target of 4.1 million tonnes of corn in the second half of 2008.

About 53 percent of 39,000 hectares of the new corn areas are in Mindanao, while 26,700 hectares are in Luzon. The remaining 9,300 hectares are in the Visayas.

The Department is optimistic that corn output for 2008 will exceed the 7-million-tonne level, but production will be 2-percent lower than the target of 7.4 million tonnes.

Araullo said the Department is carrying out a series of initiatives to increase corn output by more than 7 million tonnes.

The initiatives include promoting the use of organic and microbial fertilisers to allow corn farmers to reduce fertiliser expenses by as much as 40 percent; facilitating the creation of additional corn areas; and speeding up the construction of 45 additional post-harvest processing and trading centres nationwide.

Agriculture officials are looking to increase to support price of corn to PHP 13 per kg in order to encourage more farmers to plant yellow corn.

Sometime ago, corn farmers have been urging for a floor-price of PHP 13 per kg for yellow corn to help them cope with rising production costs such as fertiliser.

In the first half of 2008, corn output grew nearly 20 percent to 3.292 million tonnes from last year's 2.75 million tonnes. The increase in corn output has prompted farmers to consider exporting their produce to South Korea before year-end. At least 1,000 tonnes of corn may be exported to South Korea on a trial basis.

In addition, South Korea may invest as much as PHP 1 billion (US$21.1 million) into the Philippine corn sector, which would help to reduce post-harvest losses and improve the storage facilities of the Philippine corn industry.