VIGAN CITY – High breed corn growers in the province are seeking financial assistance from the national and provincial governments in order to ease their problems from the continuous increase in farm prices and cost of labor.

At the same time, they are seeking a P9 regulated buying floor price of yellow corn per kilogram for them to earn a comfortable income.

Nestor Urbien, 47, vice president of the Federated Corn Growers Association of Ilocos Sur, said due to high cost of farm inputs and labor they can hardly put up sufficient capital in their corn production venture.

“With the continuous increase in prices of farm inputs and farm labor, our cost of production on corn farming will now reach up to a minimum of P25,000 per hectare for us to get an average of 5.5 tons of corn per hectare,” he said.

He disclosed that in the previous season, the buying price per kilo of yellow corn was down to P7.00k per kilogram, which was detrimental to them.

Earlier, the provincial government headed by Ilocos Sur Governor Deogracias Victor Savellano conducted a summit at the provincial capitol that identified the problems hounding the corn industry.

It was attended by hundreds of corn growers in the province, field technicians, and other corn industry stakeholders from the private and national government sectors.

Savellano assured farmers of financial assistance at low interest rates through the Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperative.

The governor said that memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the province and the San Miguel Corporation (SMC) was already forged so that local corn farmers have a ready market for their products.

The appropriate buying price per kilo of hybrid corn so that farmers can earn a comfortable income is however under negotiation between the province and SMC.

Records of the Department of Agriculture show that Ilocos Sur is one of the biggest hybrid corn producing provinces in northern Luzon.