P62-M DA project to boost Cordillera corn production

AGGIE UPDATES

PARACELIS, Mountain Province — Corn farmers in this mountain town will soon be able to recover from their indebtedness when the government completes the Corn Feed Mill under the P62 million “Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA)” program of the Dept. of Agriculture-Cordillera.

“This is a reality: Many of our farmers are largely indebted and are having difficulties in their lives. The distance from Paracelis to Isabela where the milling areas are located is making the poor farmers poorer,” Pansy Kaye Piluden, DA-CAR corn and cassava focal person said.

Due to the distance, she said, the prices of corn of the Paracelis farmers are bought at low prices. At times, the mill operators are the ones who go to the farms and buy the produce at lower prices, preventing those who till the soil from giving value to their produce.

But with the completion of the Corn Feed Mill and Corn Cub Dryer in Barangay Butigue, the corn farmers have better chances of improving their conditions.

The P62 million for building the facility on a 3.3-hectare area is a shared expenditure of PAMANA. The DA allocated P30 million while provincial government of Mountain Province, which will operate the facility, provided P32 million.

The corn cub dryer is expected to be finished next month while the Corn Feed Mill will be operational in January, 2017.

Piluden said the facility, when completed, will give the farmers a better condition as farmers no longer have to avail of the services of the middlemen and traders who lower and control the prices.

Sterling performance

DA records show that there are only few low-lying areas in the provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, Mountain Province, and Abra where yellow corn and white corn are produced. Yet, the agency ranks Cordillera as No. 5 in the Philippines with the highest yield of corn and Rank No. 9 in terms of production.

DA-CAR records show that the region produced 217,952 metric tons of yellow corn in 2015 from the 56,286 hectares. It also produces 19,871 metric tons of white corn from the 8,15 hectares of planted area.

Ifugao produces the most yellow corn at 109,890 metric tons (MT) followed by Kalinga with 52,047 MT; Apayao 30,963; Mt. Province 22.310 MT and Abra 837 MT.

        DA-PAMANA focal person Asuncion Mendoza said the Paracelis Corn Feed Mill is a priority project of the late former Governor Leonard Mayaen, who also saw the need to put up the project to ease the condition of his constituents.

Paracelis have many poor farmers despite the high corn yield. “The project is being fast-tracked ready for the next harvest season in January.”

The PAMANA project is put in place to help improve the lives of the poor farmers from far flung communities. The new project is expected to improve the lives of the farmers who have been in deep poverty for so long.

Mendoza said Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr., who became OIC governor due to the death of Mayaen last March, expressed happiness with the new facility almost completed.

He also saw the modern equipment that will be installed in the milling plant which the entire Mountain Province can utilize for their produce.

Aside from improving the farmers’ condition, the economic enterprise is also expected to provide jobs to other residents.

DA officials said “the many corn farmers in Paracelis and neighboring towns of Aguinaldo, Alfonso Lista, Lagawe and Lamut in the province of Ifugao who are deeply indebted sees the lives improving in the coming years.”