TABUK CITY , Kalinga — Corn farmers here are reeling from the rock-bottom prices of corn, and it appears they are helpless as the government cannot do anything significant about their plight.

In fact, the government may have contributed to the reduction in corn prices.

As of Thursday, the price in the local market of ordinary yellow corn is P7 per kilo, while that of the RR or herbicide-resistant varieties is P4 per kilo.

This is way below the P12 per kilo price of both the ordinary and RR varieties during the last cropping.
Boyd Diasen, 38, who owns a five-hectare corn farm in Calaccad, this city, said that with the current price, a farmer who planted ordinary corn is lucky if he could make P12,000 per hectare, while those who planted RR could not recoup their expenses. This is so because RR seeds cost P3,800 more than the price of ordinary corn seeds.

Diasen said that the price of RR corn plummeted to P4 because of allegations that it has ill effects on livestock.

But he is not convinced that that could be the reason for the drop in the price of RR varieties, claiming that the animals in Calaccad which are fed with the RR are not affected at all.

Diasen suspected that something unusual might have happened to cause the sharp reduction in the prices of corn, noting that not only the RR is affected but also the ordinary corn.

Meanwhile, National Food Authority (NFA) Provincial Operation Officer Enrique Baliang told the Manila Bulletin that in a recent visit to Isabela, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap had said that the government imported feed wheat which, Baliang said, is reportedly a substitute for corn in the making of animal feeds.

“Feed millers prefer feed wheat because it is cheaper than yellow corn,” Baliang said.

On the P2 “rollback” in the buying price of the NFA effective last Aug. 28, Baliang said that it was a decision made by Secretary Yap who said that with the lower price, the government could buy more corn.

With the “rollback,” the NFA is now buying at P10.70 per kilo from farmers who are members of cooperatives and P10.40 from those who are not cooperative members.

On the complaints of farmers that the classification standard of the NFA is too stiff, Baliang said they cannot do anything because under the guidelines of the agency on corn procurement, they buy only stocks which are five percent damaged at most.