CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga (PIA) – – Kalinga contributes 66,720 metric tons or 31 percent of the Cordillera Administrative Region’s 214,867 MT total estimate corn production for 2021, making the province second highest producer of yellow corn in the region, next only to Ifugao.
Philippine Statistics Authority 2021 corn situation outlook showed that Ifugao ranked first with 73,711 or 34%, Apayao ranked third with 30,349MT or 14%, Mountain Province with 25,133MT(12%), Abra with 18,471MT(9%) and Benguet with 483MT or 0.22% share.
Kalinga achieved a 376% sufficiency level on yellow corn, according to Ronan Soriano, Department of Agriculture-CAR Corn Program Agriculturist II.
Kalinga has a physical corn production area of 12,343 hectares which are fully utilized during the rainy season based on the submitted Planting Reports by the partner local government units to DA-CAR.
Major yellow corn producing municipalities are Tabuk City, Pinukpuk, Tanudan, and Rizal. Hence, most of the corn interventions go to these municipalities. They also produce white corn but primarily for home and/or local consumption.
With the growing demand for yellow corn being the main ingredient for livestock and poultry feeds, the corn production areas continue to expand even in the steep rolling areas. High yield, however, in these areas is not guaranteed because of the unfavorable slope.
One main problem identified particularly during the rainy days is the surface runoff which carries away the nutrients needed by the plants.
To combat the problem, sustainable ways such as sustainable corn production in sloping areas (SCoPSA) and intercropping are being promoted by the Department considering the region’s overall topography.
“We highly promote intercropping of other crops like pineapple and fruit trees and establishment of hedgerows in the sloping corn areas to avoid soil erosion,” Soriano stressed.
Technology demonstrations on SCoPSA are already established in the major-producing provinces in the region since 2019. For Kalinga, there are two established areas located in the municipality of Tanudan.
SCoPSA is a project introduced by the DA which aims to enhance the productivity level of corn farmers by promoting sustainable land use management that will enhance the agricultural livelihood as well as restore the ecological balance in the sloping areas.
Meanwhile, the farmer’s cooperatives in the localities are also encouraged to further strengthen and capacitate their groups specifically in consolidating the produce of their farmer-members. This is now seen as the strategy to further assist the corn farmers in marketing their produce because while the province produces a high volume of yellow corn, there is no locally-established feed mills to process their produce. Through consolidation, the farmer’s cooperatives may be able to market their produce directly to the feed millers.
At present, Soriano said that there is an ongoing discussion with the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) on the direct marketing of corn products with corn farmers in the region.
“The UBRA is interested to link with the farmers but they need to study first the situation and the marketing agreements to be done including logistics, volume of corn grains, and price. We are looking forward to this agreement for it will be a great help to the farmers,” he ended. **PAB-PIA CAR, Kalinga w/ reports from DA-RFO CAR, RAFIS
