December 9, 2024

 

Philippines' Corn Bill: Why it matters for country's corn sector

 

The Finance subcommittee of the Philippine Senate approved the ₱178.273 billion proposed 2025 budget of the country's Department of Agriculture (DA) on October 21.

 

As that happened, the chair of the subcommittee, Senator Cynthia Villar, assured the passing of the Corn Bill for the Bureau of Plant Industry.

 

Sponsored by Villar, Senate Bill No. 2625 ("An Act to Develop the Philippine Corn Industry, Enhance the Availability and Affordable of Quality Feeds and Staple Food, and Provide for a Corn Competitiveness Enhancement Fund" as reported by the Philippine News Agency) under Committee Report No. 246 seeks to drive "the competitiveness and expansion" of the Philippine yellow corn industry. It also aims to direct 20% of the fund to white corn development and other indigenous corn varieties.

 

In late January last year, the senator was already pushing for a corn bill to increase corn production to provide affordable feeds for the livestock and poultry sectors. According to Villar, "This can be achieved by institutionalising mechanisation, hybrid seeds propagation, and distribution, credit, extension, and training, provision of insurance, marketing, organisation of farmers, among others."

 

A corn bill would be very beneficial to the Philippine corn sector, which is considerably underproducing to meet local demand.

 

Based on data by Statista, the country's corn production in the years since 2020 did not register a significant increase. On a year-by-year basis, the volume of Philippine corn production is as follows:

 

    - 2020: 8.12 million metric tons (MMT)

    - 2021: 8.29 MMT

    - 2022: 8.26 MMT

    - 2023: 8.41 MMT

 

From these data, it can be determined the average rate of difference between each year's worth of corn production volume is approximately +1.18%.

 

Notably, 2023's volume, at 8.41 MMT will not be enough to fulfill local feed demand. This is especially true given that Philippine pig production was expected to grow by 3% this year and broiler production by 4-5%.

 

What exacerbated the situation was the drop in corn production in some areas.

 

Production in Western Visayas, for instance, suffered a serious fall of 26.6% in the second quarter of 2024, according to a recent report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Regional Statistical Services Office VI. The region's total corn output for Q2 was 25,409 metric tonnes (MT), a decline from the 34,640 MT produced during the same period in 2023.

 

Among the provinces in Western Visayas, Capiz emerged as the leading corn producer, contributing 43.7% of the region's total output for the quarter. But while the province confirmed a 25.5% increase in harvested area, others like Negros Occidental and Iloilo recorded big reductions, with drops of 32.4% and 56.8%, respectively.

 

More troubles descended on the cornfields of Negros Occidental later this year as an armyworm infestation inflicted severe damage to cornfields across 11 of its local government units (LGUs), with losses amounting to ₱37.32 million (US$645,000) as of July 30, 2024.

 

Those developments help explain the recent rise in prices of corn — which increased by 23% to US$1.08-1.80 during the period of May 1 to September 5 this year, based on a comparison of the Department of Agriculture's (DA) Bantay Presyo data. As such, local poultry farmers have urged the DA to focus on solutions that can cut the prices of critical agricultural inputs.

 

Considering the impact of armyworm infestations on local corn production, the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service in Manila expected corn imports to hit 1.35 MMT for MY 2024/25.

 

As with the issue of imports, these tend to have the risk of driving down market prices of food products originating from local farmers. Hence, it appears that one aspect of the corn bill is to benefit the income and welfare of Philippine corn farmers.

 

"Our corn farmers are still dealing with these issues (related to the domestic corn industry lagging behind) even if there has been sufficient budget given to the programme through the years," Villar remarked in January last year, renewing her call to strengthen the sector that can help improve the state of the livestock, poultry, and dairy industries in the country.

 

A corn bill, once approved, can begin a transformative path for domestic corn production to be on a firmer footing.

 

About EFL AG-DATA

 

EFL AG-DATA is a startup incubated by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University's Innovation and Enterprise Company (NTUitive) Incubator Program. It is developing an agricultural hub that will revolutionise the feed-to-meat supply chain in China and Southeast Asia countries through data-driven solutions. EFL's mission is to empower farms through innovative data-based services that solve complex problems and enhance productivity.

 

- EFL AG-DATA