Palawan Supercorn Development Corp. (PSDC) is seeking pioneer incentives from the Board of Investments for its P10-billion corn project in Palawan, which will make use of innovative farming techniques.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday said it endorsed PSDC’s application for pioneer incentives as it is the first company to adopt precision farming in the Philippines.
“The DA endorsed PSDC for pioneering incentives as it is the first to use precision farming in the Philippines, which requires a big investment,” Agriculture Undersecretary Jose C. Reaño told reporters in an interview. Precision farming, according to Reaño, is the use of technologies, such as global positioning system (GPS), in agricultural production. It also uses technologies to project weather conditions to minimize the risk of crop damage, he said.
“This lowers the cost of production [of crops],” he said.
PSDC is a joint venture of Century Properties Group Inc. and Precision Agriculture Management and Grains Development Southeast Asia. The company is going into commercial yellow-corn production to beef up the supply of the staple in Asean.
The initial phase of this venture would entail the planting of corn in 5,000 hectares and the production of approximately 90,000 metric tons (MT) of corn annually.
“The project has identified the islands of Busuanga, Culion and Corion in Palawan for yellow-corn production with completely fully mechanized farming equipment and postharvest facilities, and will have an investment cost of approximately $10 million per 5,000 hectares module,” according to a DA document.
The project targets to develop 50,000 hectares of corn-production areas, which will require a total investment cost of around P10 billion spread over 15 years of operation.
“Once the project reaches its final phase of developing 50,000 hectares, it is expected to deliver good and high quality corn feedstock estimated at 900,000 MT per year, to be delivered to hog and poultry raisers at an estimate average price of P11.70 per kilo,” the document read.
Companies accorded the pioneer status may get fiscal and nonfiscal incentives, such as income-tax holiday for up to eight years and duty-free importation of capital goods.
