DAVAO CITY – Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will propose the establishment of "corn storage complexes" using the modern silo systems equipped with dryers in the four major corn-producing regions of Mindanao: Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Central Mindanao and the Bangsamoro Region.
In a statement on Monday, MinDA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the corn facilities will be owned by the corn farmers' cooperatives which will be linked by MinDA to financing institutions for their operating capitals.
With the corn storage complex strategically placed in corn-producing areas, Piñol said farmers would be able to deliver their products to their respective cooperatives, which in turn will store the harvests under a system similar to the sugar quedan.
This will give corn farmers leverage in the pricing of their products as they could hold on to their stocks and wait for a better price or enter into direct marketing agreements with institutional buyers, such as feed mills.
Piñol recalled that when his father was still a member of the Provincial Board of North Cotabato in the late 80s, he led farmers to the halls of the Senate to ask for legislative action on the unfair and unjust practice by traders to drop the buying price of corn during peak harvest season.
At that time, Cotabato corn farmers of Cotabato -- especially the Arakan Valley -- either dumped their harvests by the side of the road or burned their corn to show their displeasure at the seeming inability of the government to help and protect them.
“Today, 40 years after that futile corn crusade waged by my father and the corn farmers, I see light at the end of the tunnel. This ray of hope is provided by the PHP2.1 billion grant fund by the European Union (EU) Delegation to the economic development of Mindanao which will be managed by MinDA,” he said.
Piñol said that among the priority projects that MinDA has identified following a consultation with stakeholders is the establishment of post-harvest and storage facilities for both rice and corn in Mindanao.
“For our intervention for corn farmers, I have designed the Mindanao Corn Development Program which will involve the participation corn farmers associations and cooperatives, the private sector and the government through MinDA using the EU Grant Funds,” he said.
Piñol said MinDA planning staff will work on the details of the program with the help of the corn farmers’ associations prior to its inclusion in the list of projects for funding under the EU Fund Grant.
“This will improve their income, increase their productivity, and address poverty in the agriculture sector, especially among corn farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Piñol bared that during his visit to Bukidnon last week, Governor Jose Ma. Zubiri warned that corn farmers in the province could suffer from very low buying prices as the province expects bumper harvest from over 100,000 hectares of production area.
Bukidnon is a huge corn-producing province in Northern Mindanao, the country’s second-biggest producer of corn after Cagayan Valley.
“The drastic drop in the price of corn during peak harvest season has always been a problem for corn farmers in Mindanao for as long as I could remember. The buying price of corn in Mindanao goes up to as high as PHP20 per kilo offseason too as low as PHP8 at peak of harvest,” Piñol said.
He added that traders take advantage of the absence of drying and storage facilities and set the prices at very low levels and since they own warehouses and drying facilities, they hoard the stocks and release these to the market during the off-harvest season thus making a killing. (PNA)
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