Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Chair Emmanuel Piñol is planning to tap a P2.1-billion grant from the European Union (EU) to build modern grain silos across Mindanao.
This will address an “age-old problem” that trapped farmers in an “endless cycle of poverty”, according to the former agriculture chief.
In a Facebook post, Piñol said he wants to build corn storage complexes – complete with modern dryers and silos – in at least four or five regions in Mindanao.
The main source of funds for the silos’ construction, including capability training, will be the aforementioned EU grant, which MinDA is meant to manage over the next five years, while the operation and maintenance of the facilities will be funded by government financing institutions like Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Piñol said.
The development of the silos will be part of the Mindanao Corn Development Program, which MinDA is crafting and will submit as a priority project for inclusion in the government’s Mindanao Peace and Development Program (MINPAD) or Rise Mindanao.
Piñol said that right now, Mindanao produces roughly half of the total corn production of the country.
With fewer farmers planting corn amid drop in farmgate prices, the country’s corn production fell by 3.4 percent to 2.34 million metric tons (MT) during the first quarter of this year, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
A separate PSA data showed that as of the third week of June, the average farmgate price of yellow corngrain fell by 8.6 percent to P12.78 per kilogram (/kg) from the price level of P13.98/kg during the same period last year.
The average farmgate price of white corngrain also declined by 13.7 percent to P14.02/kg from the price level of P16.25/kg during the same period last year.
Aside from low prices, corn farmers are also dealing with the infestation of fall armyworm (FAW), a dangerous transboundary insect spreading rapidly in the country’s corn farms.
In July, the Department of Agriculture (DA) had set aside P150 million as an emergency fund to help resolve this problem.
Using this fund, the DA will deploy crop experts at farms affected by FAW and will procure the needed crop protection chemicals and biocontrol agents to effectively manage, control and contain the disease.
It was in June 2019 when the first case of FAW infestation in the country was reported. At that time, it was only being experienced in corn farms in Piat, Cagayan.
To date, the infestation already spread to Mindanao and has already infested 8,000 hectares of corn farms in 208 municipalities and 47 provinces.
Meanwhile, aside from building silos, Piñol said the government must also help liberate corn farmers “from the shackles of the village traders who also provide seeds, fertilizers, and cash advances at usurious rates”.
Corn farmers, he said, must also have to be organized into viable cooperatives or associations so that it’s easier for the government to give them access to credit, especially for good seeds and farm inputs.
“We also have to link up the corn farmers’ cooperatives or associations to government lending institutions, like the Development Bank of the Philippines because it is the partner bank of the Mindanao Development Authority,” Piñol further said.