Gen. Santos City - Agriculture sector officials announced at the weekend the setting up of modern corn processing facilities in at least three provinces through joint-venture agreements with the local government units and the private sector.

Angelito Lim of the National Agribusiness Corp. (Napcor) said the projects have a total budget of P45 million.

The corn processing centers to be put up in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat, Malungon in Sarangani and Kabacan in North Cotabato were designed to produce premium quality corn grains.

Mr. Lim said each local government unit would provide a counterpart fund of P5 million. "We want to establish corn processing center models that will produce quality corn here in Region 12."

A Nabcor paper earlier estimated the cost of setting up a single modern post-harvest processing facility at P39 million to include equipment, hauling vehicle and management and administrative costs, among others.

The private sector is expected to fill in the financing gap from the Agriculture department's P15 million and the P5 million from the local governments.

Mr. Lim said the modern post-harvest processing facilities would reduce the cost of corn processing and ultimately benefit small farmers or even small-and medium-scale corn-based enterprises.

The total cost of building modern corn post-harvest facilities nationwide is P1.2 million, the Nabcor paper said.

A published study by the Bureau of Post-harvest Research and Extension noted that improper post-harvest practices have been blamed to the buildup of molds in corn that causes aflatoxin.

Corn with very high aflatoxin levels when fed to animals or humans could result in biological disorders or even death, the study said.