THE municipality of Asturias wants to address the high demand for yellow corn, which is a main ingredient in animal feeds.
“Our soil is good for yellow corn and with that, we would like our farmers here to cultivate more of that crop, especially that Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has encouraged the production of yellow corn,” said Asturias Mayor Jose Antonio Pintor, in a recently concluded Cord Derby hosted by Virginia Farms Inc. and Asturias Farms.
Pintor said Asturias is already known as a major producer of yellow corn in Cebu, but its production is not sufficient to meet the demand for yellow corn in the province.
He said the corn derby was a platform to encourage farmers to augment corn production and see for themselves which corn variety is the best in terms of quality and productivity.
Virginia Farms and Asturias Farms, which hosted the activity, own a 360-hectare property in Asturias and are eyeing to partner with the local government to expand corn production in Cebu.
Rolando Tambago, Virginia Farms president, said they are willing to set up a scheme with farmers that will offer them guaranteed income.
“We have an existing program under our Virginia Farmers Solution. It’s a buy-back guarantee program for hogs that we offer to every farmer that uses our feeds for their hogs, and we buy their hogs upon harvest at a minimum rate of P118 per kilo live weight. We will soon develop a guaranteed income scheme for fruits and vegetable farmers that will include those growing yellow corn,” he said.
About 20 million kilos of yellow corn per month are needed for swine feeds in Cebu. Virginia Farms alone needs about 1.2 million kilos of yellow corn every month.
Tambago said there is a huge market for yellow corn for local farmers to tap, especially now that the provincial government is promoting the enhanced countryside development (ECD) program to support the agriculture and tourism industries of the province.
Cebu Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Roldan Saragena said that for 2021, Cebu Province has allocated a budget of P15 billion for the ECD program.
Of the amount, at least P28 million was allocated for four yellow corn post-harvest facilities that will be located in strategic areas in Cebu including Bantayan and Camotes islands.
“This is to support the yellow corn farmers since one of the areas we identified that the farmers will really need is a post-harvest facility,” said Saragena. / KOC