The country’s corn sector is expected to post record-high production this year as high grains prices in both local and international markets encourage farmers to plant more crops, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

In an interview, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said that corn production will exceed this year’s target of 7.8 million metric tons as bumper harvest were recorded in major corn producing provinces that were unaffected by Typhoon Pablo.

“We can expect record harvest for corn, particularly in Cagayan and Isabela, as farmers were encouraged to cultivate more crops because of good prices,” Alcala said.

The Agriculture chief also said that they are now conducting massive intervention efforts to help typhoon-stricken corn areas in Mindanao, noting that the damage caused by Pablo to the industry will not affect production output for this year.

The corn sector earlier reported more than 112,859 MT of the grains were destroyed at a cost of P1.635 billion. The typhoon hit 41,942 hectares, of which 39,250 hectares could no longer be rehabilitated.

“The corn production losses is estimated to cause a 5.6-percent reduction to the 2 million MT forecast for the first quarter next year,” Alcala said.

Meanwhile, Alcala said that they are now conducting cloud seeding in Cagayan and Isabela to mitigate the effects of prolonged drought in the regions.

“There has been no rainfall in the past days, so we are beefing up our cloud seeding program in the area so that the current crops will not be affected,” he said.

With regard to corn export, Alcala said that the National Food Authority Council will continue to deliberate on the capability of the corn industry to export the grain considering that current production levels match the feed requirements of livestock growers and farmers enjoy good buying prices.

Alcala said that the corn farmers currently enjoy good buying prices at P14 per kilogram against the current P18 per kg in the world market.

“[Selling] price is the normal driver [of production]. Farmers will try to replant as long as the price is good. Now, at P14 per kilo, this is good so farmers will be encouraged to replant,” he said.

The DA-National Corn Program has a production target of 7.8 MT for 2012 and is targeting to attain corn sufficiency by next year.

This year’s projection by the National Corn Program is slightly higher than the projection made by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) of 7.46 million MT, higher by 7 percent than last year’s output of 6.97 million MT.

During the first nine months of the year, corn production grew 7.49 percent year-on-year to 5.90 MT from the previous 5.48 MT. The gross value of production rose to P3.92 billion from P3.65 billion the previous year.

Based on the 2011-2017 Corn Industry Development Roadmap, the government intends to increase corn production from 6.97 million MT in 2011 to 10.82 million MT in 2017 and to increase the annual income of farmers by 10 percent per hectare.

For 2012, the government expects to attain a sufficiency level of 98 percent with a deficit of 179,000 MT. This is because small volume of corn requirements for animal feeds is still imported by livestock growers.

For 2013, the government intends to raise corn yield to 8.4 million MT with a sufficiency level of 101 percent with a surplus of 149,000 MT. To do this, the government should encourage domestic consumption of ingredients for animal feeds.

The government is currently conducting intervention strategies such as the provision of production support services, irrigation development, post-harvest development services, marketing development services, as well as education and training for farmers.

A budget of P950 million has been allocated for the National Corn Program this year.