The government's assistance in corn farmer's post-harvest equipment acquisition will be critical specially in light of a predicted bumper harvest in the third quarter that could send a substantial volume of corn production go to waste if farmers cannot dispose the goods either in the domestic or the world market.

Jet G. Parma, business manager of one of the Philippines' largest corn seed producers Pioneer HiBred Philippines Inc. (PHBP), said the third quarter harvest in Mindanao could indeed hit a high of 1.5 million metric tons (MT) as seed sales have picked up noticeably which could lead to a good harvest given a consistently good weather. As such, he said farmers would need post harvest facilities to store up the goods as a means to maintain quality grains.

"It will be a good year specially if we don't have much rain during harvest in June and July because too much rain during harvest is not good for corn," he said in an interview.

"(But) we need post-harvest facilities which is very important. Once you harvest, there's too much yield capacity to dry and store. We'll be lagging behind in our ability to store. That (post harvest acquisition) is all in line with what needs to be done," he said, adding that the Department of Agriculture's (DA) pronouncement of investing in these facilities is hoped to help the industry.

Parma said post-harvest equipment (driers, storage facilities) in corn is even more important in the incoming rainy season harvest.

"It's very critical specially during the rainy season harvest, it's not much during the dry months," he said, implying farmers can still resort to solar drying during the dry months but cannot do this in the rainy season.

He said even planting of the genetically modified (GM) Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn (GM variety injected with the protein gene that resists Asiatic corn borer infestation) aimed by PHBP to reach to 15,000 to 20,000 hectares for the year will pick up this year as farmers observe it's yield difference from the ordinary hybrid corn.