Corn farmers seek higher budget for post harvest facilities

MANILA, Philippines — Local corn farmers are urging the government to allocate a budget for the establishment of post harvest facilities in the country to boost production and ensure quality supply of corn for the country.

In a virtual forum by Tugon Kabuhayan yesterday, Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (PhilMaize) Roger Navarro emphasized the industry’s need for post harvest facilities.

“We need to secure the fresh crops, which are the rainy season crops,” Navarro said, referring to those harvested from August to September.

He said the crops harvested during this season accounts for 60 percent of the production volume in a year, which can supply about seven months of the country’s corn requirement.

Navarro pointed out that farmers have no problem in the dry season as they can dry their crops on the roads.

“We only have a small window of time before the rainy season arrives, which is one month, to dry our crops,” Navarro said.

“We need post-harvest facilities and mechanical dryers to speed up the process. This produces better quality corn. But since we don’t have those, we produce corn that is poor in quality and we get paid less for our harvest because of it. During the dry season, only 30 percent is harvested during the summer, which gives us 5 months’ worth of food,” he said.

Asked how much budget the industry would need for post harvest facilities, Navarro said it would cost around P100,000 for a facility covering one hectare of farm land planted with corn.

“There are about 2.5 million hectares. You have to multiply that by P100,000 and that’s what we require in terms of budget,” he said.

While Navarro acknowledged that this budget may be too large to be covered by an annual national budget, he recommended that the Department of Agriculture (DA) instead set a target budget for a certain number of years.

“For example, in one presidential term, there are six years, they should have a target in terms of coverage [for that presidential term]. For example, if the target is 10 percent [corn farm land] in the next six years, then you should have a budget for that,” Navarro said.

Meanwhile, in reaction to the DA’s P500 million fuel discount program for corn farmers and fishers, Navarro said this is not enough to cover all corn farmers in the country.

“The subsidies given by the government are not distributed to all the corn farmers because the data is not accurate. Out of the 800,000 corn farmers, only a small number receive financial aid,” Navarro said.

The DA earlier said the legislated P500 million fuel subsidy would initially benefit 158,730 corn farmers and fisherfolk nationwide.

Under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2022, about P500 million has been allocated for fuel discounts for farmers and fisherfolks. The second tranche worth P600 million of fuel vouchers will be distributed in April.

In a memorandum circular issued by Agriculture Secretary William Dar on March 7, the DA released the guidelines for the fuel discount program, which state that eligible corn farmers and fisherfolk shall be given a 30 percent fuel discount upon purchase of gasoline or diesel fuel from a designated fuel station.

The guidelines state that the maximum fuel discount that a farmer or fisherfolk may receive is P3,000. Beneeficiaries of the fuel discount are farmers or fisherfolk who own and operate agricultural and fishery machinery individually or through a farmer organization, cooperative or association.