Iloilo City to host Nat'l corn congress
A gathering of some 1,500 corn producers from the different regions of the country will converge in Iloilo City on January 9-11, 2008 for the National Corn Congress with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap gracing the affair.
In a PIA interview, Director Larry Nacionales of the Department of Agriculture, Region VI, disclosed that the activity is facilitated by PhilMaize and supported by the DA.
"The activity is very significant for our local corn producers here to also get new breakthroughs, new technologies that will be presented during the three-day activity. This will help improve corn production output of our farmers here," Nacionales said.
Nacionales explained that activity will best discuss the requirement of corn not only for human consumption but also as a good source of feeds to support the livestock industry.
"We need to produce or expand corn production, and Secretary Yap is expected to announce during the affair that we have a good corn production performance, a double growth rate in Western Visayas," Director Nacionales said but take note that the official figure of the production output was not available as of press time.
More assistance will be extended by the government on this sector, said Nacionales as he stressed that a lot of good and well known speakers on corn production will be featured in the National Corn Congress, where new technologies, access to rural credit, post-harvest technology, and marketing will be presented.
"While we expect that there will be some discussions between Secretary Yap and the corn producers on how to further strengthen the corn industry, the highlight of Corn Congress will be a field trip to the corn-area of the province of Iloilo in Sara and San Dionisio," Director Nacionales concluded.(PIA/T.Villavert)