ILOILO City – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a decrease in corn production in Western Visayas in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The region’s production of corn only reached 45,978 metric tons (MT). It declined by 17.1 percent against the total production of 55,456 metric tons in the last quarter of 2023.
Also, the total area harvested for corn dropped by 26.1 percent from 18,964 hectares in the previous year of the same quarter to 14,021 hectares in the current period.
White and yellow corn production declines in fourth quarter of 2024
Additionally, the PSA noted a 12.3 percent decline in white corn production of 15,430 MT compared to the production last year of the same quarter. The 30,547 MT output of yellow corn was 19.3 percent lower than 2023’s last quarter production.
The province of Negros Occidental contributed 56.5 percent, or more than half, to the regional corn production in the said quarter. Iloilo came in second with 26.3 percent share, followed by Capiz (15.5 percent), Guimaras (0.6 percent), Antique (0.6 percent), and Aklan (0.4 percent).
Negros Occidental also had the highest share to the regional corn area harvested at 67.1 percent and a contribution of negative 29.9 percentage points to the regional decline.
Meanwhile, Iloilo shared the second-highest corn area harvested of 2,748 hectares or 19.6 percent share, followed by Capiz with 1,535 hectares and Guimaras with 155 hectares./PN
