The Department of Agriculture has expanded areas planted to corn by another 75,000 hectares in Mindanao to further boost production of the grain by as much as 270,000 metric tons this year, an official said.

The department’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (Golden Abundant Harvest) program for corn will spend P203.6 million to increase yellow corn output to meet production targets, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dennis Araullo said.

“The planting season for this expansion areas covers the second and third quarters [of 2008],” Araullo said. “Hence, we can expect to harvest an estimated 270,000 metric tons in the last two quarters of the year.”

In the second half of 2008, the government expects corn production—from 1.4 million hectares of land—to reach as much as 4.1 million metric tons.

Araullo said 39,000 hectares of the expansion areas were in Mindanao, 26,700 hectares in Luzon, and 9,300 hectares in the Visayas.

With the corn “crash program” in place, the government has again revised its full year corn output target to 7.2 million metric tons from the original target of 7.4 million. The agriculture department says it is confident of meeting this growth target despite typhoons and high fertilizer prices.

To attain this year’s corn output target, the department will promote use of organic and microbial fertilizers so corn farmers can cut fertilizer costs by as much as 40 percent; facilitate cultivation of additional corn areas; and hasten construction of 45 additional post-harvest processing and trading centers nationwide.

Earlier, the department said the Philippines would become self-sufficient in corn by 2010. Edited by INQUIRER.net