A campaign to raise the incomes of corn farmers by P10,000 per hectare next year is the latest in a series of ambitious programs that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is embarking upon in the final nine months of the Arroyo administration.

The sanguine projection can be realized, Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap explained, by the establishment of postharvest facilities like corn on cob dryers and shellers and the distribution of four-by-four wheel tractors and shallow tube wells to hundreds of thousands of farmers nationwide.

These pieces of equipment, he added, form part of the DA’s 10-point agenda to improve the quality of corn and cut down postproduction losses.

No less than P400 million or half of the proposed budget of P817.7 million for the National Corn Program (NCP) will be earmarked for these facilities.

“This is reflective of the DA’s policy shift towards pouring more investments in hard infrastructures away from providing soft interventions such subsidies for corn seeds and microbial inoculants,” Yap said in a speech read for him by Regional Executive Director Jose Dayao of the Regional Field Unit (RFU) in Bicol.

He noted that for next year, DA projects an increase in the average yield to at least six tons per hectare, a reduction of 8 percent in post-harvest losses; and a jump in corn farmers’ incomes by at least P10,000 per hectare.

In meeting these targets, DA is committed to do, among others, intensify efforts to promote the use of organic and microbial fertilizers; expand corn farms by opening up new areas for cultivation nationwide; step up the corn intercropping program in coconut plantations, in collaboration with the Philippine Coconut Authority; continue to encourage the use of hybrid corn technology among farmers across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; and, reduce post-harvest losses by promoting better harvest practices, and by improving the corn farmer’s shelling, drying, and storage methods by constructing additional post-harvest processing and trading centers nationwide.

The agriculture chief said DA is working with local government units in building infrastructure for the corn sector, training technicians in modern corn farming methods and technologies and establishing and strengthening farmer organizations to allow corn growers better access to credit and other support services.

All these actions, he added, are in anticipation “of a host of factors, including the expected decline in corn yields due to the adverse effects of the changing weather patterns.”

However, Yap noted that total corn production has been increasing at an average of 5.8 percent over the last seven years.

Last year’s corn production reached 6.93 million metric tons (MMT), which surpassed the 2007 harvest by more than 200,000 tons, in spite of high fertilizer prices and serious typhoon damage.