Corn processing plant to rise in Pangasinan

Prasad Seeds Private Ltd. on Wednesday will bring online a $10-million (about P445 million) grain seed processing facility in Pangasinan, with the intention of making the Philippines the corn seed hub of Southeast Asia.

The Indian firm said the facility, a first of its kind in the country, was also meant to help boost the country’s corn self-sufficiency goal with the availability of quality processed hybrid seeds.

William D. Dar, the company’s adviser for global expansion, said yesterday that Prasad Seeds Philippines Inc. would initially provide such services as corn drying, shelling, treating, conditioning and packaging.

Located in Rosales, the facility will also engage in fumigation, warehousing and cold storage, seed production research trials and commercial seed production.

Dar, who served as agriculture secretary during Joseph Estrada’s presidency, said Prasad’s business in India helped make Telangana state—where it is headquartered—the country’s “seed capital”, where many multinational seed companies avail themselves of seed processing services.

“Likewise, we will aspire to transform Pangasinan into becoming the seed capital of the Philippines, and eventually the country as the corn seed hub in Southeast Asia,” said Dar.

As part of that thrust, Prasad Seeds has entered into a service agreement with Syngenta AG to process the German firm’s hybrid corn seeds that are produced in the Philippines.

Dar said Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala had endorsed Prasad Seeds Philippines for registration with the Board of Investment on a pioneer status.

The endorsement rides on Prasad Seeds’ use of a fuel-efficient drying technology that consumes less liquefied petroleum gas compared to other dyers.

The company also uses US-designed blower and burner systems that result in shorter drying time and reduce power consumption by 20 percent.

With these features, Prasad Seeds’ dryers are said to achieve 52 percent to 54 percent recovery.

Dar said such recovery rates were higher by as much as 6 percentage points than what similar dryers in Pangasinan can achieve.

These also result in “producing much cleaner seeds, with better vigor and germination, and therefore higher yields,” Dar added.