KORONADAL — The volume of corn harvest in South Cotabato is expected to rise as harvest season nears, an Agriculture official said on Friday.
Angelina M. Lucena, assistant manager of National Food Authority (NFA)-South Cotabato told reporters that based on projection for corn, the harvest will start to peak next month until July especially in the province’s Allah Valley area.
Ms. Lucena, however, did not cite the amount of expected increase in corn harvest, adding that the NFA is readying a strategy to complement the rise in volume by buying the farmers’ produce.
NFA procurement teams in the towns of Banga and Surallah, she said, will be ready in the coming weeks to buy corn produce to enhance procurement operation.
With the deployment of the teams, services of NFA will become more accessible to farmers from the agricultural plains of Allah Valley area, Mr. Lucena said.
Allah Valley area, or the second district of South Cotabato, comprises the towns of Surallah, Banga, T’boli, Lake Sebu, Sto. Nino and Norala.
White corn is the most preferred variety for the crop at a base price of P13 per kilogram (kg), Ms. Lucena said.
“For this season we will be giving farmers an incentive of 40 centavos/kg,” she said.
South Cotabato yielded 428,718 metric tons of corn in 2011, making it the fourth largest top corn producer in the country. The three top corn producers are Isabela, Bukidnon and Maguindanao. South Cotabato corners over a third of Central Mindanao’s corn output.
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