Century Properties Inc. is pushing for the application of precision farming for the first time in the Philippines through a multibillion-peso project on growing corn for the production of animal feeds.
The project, which is to be done through Palawan Supercorn Development Corp. (PSDC), is a joint venture with Precision Agriculture Management and Grains Development (PAMGD) Southeast Asia.
The real estate developer is seeking to register the Supercorn project with the Board of Investments, mainly for implementing a pioneering technology in the country.
According to Century Propeties, the project intends to use 50,000 hectares of farms and would need a total investment of P10 billion over 15 years.
At such scale, the Supercorn project is expected to hire 250 people.
In a proposal presented to the Department of Agriculture, Century Properties said PSDC would help address the increasing demand for corn in the country through the use of efficient and innovative corn farming techniques.
Meanwhile, the California-based PAMGD intends to provide jobs, train and educate communities in agriculture and agribusiness.
“The Supercorn project will also provide livelihood by way of smallholder out-grower production, and financing and buy-back schmes for yellow corn production,” the proposal said.
The joint venture partners have identified the islands of Busuanga, Culion and Coron in Palawan for the production of yellow corn with complete, fully mechanized farming equipment and post-harvest facilities.
Further, the project is intended to help address the demand-supply mismatch of corn between Southeast Asia and the Americas—with the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia importing some 6 million tons from the United States and South America.