Growing corn varies depending on the area, and its production cycle is different in all parts of the world. In the Philippines, corn production is based on the landscape and topography of an area. In 2023, the production volume of corn in the Philippines amounted to approximately *** million metric tons, higher than the produced quantity of *** million metric tons in the previous year. Corn farming Over the past six years, about *** million hectares of land were utilized for cultivating corn in the Philippines. Despite fluctuation in production, corn remains among the leading crops produced in the Philippines. The Philippines is also one of the biggest corn producing countries globally. Corn industry in the Philippines Aside from rice, corn is considered another staple crop in the Philippines. The country has six common varieties — sweet corn, wild violet corn, white lagkitan, Visayan white corn, purple, and young corn. Some of the country's corn production is exported, especially maize seeds and frozen sweet corn.

In the national marketing year 2023/2024, the Philippines produced 8.12 million metric tons of maize, which was a slight decrease from 8.26 million metric tons produced in the previous year. However, the Philippines' maize production was forecast to reach 8.3 million metric tons in the marketing year 2024/2025.

In the Philippines, maize (corn) is the second major cereal crop after rice. Around 0.12 million ha of maize are grown in rice-maize (R-M) systems, mostly situated in the lowlands, and the area of this system is growing fast. The objectives of this study were to describe the targeted cropping system, to test several management options that could help to optimize it and reduce the production risk, and to develop a simple nutrient balance as a sustainability indicator. For this, we conducted participatory onfarm trials in Pangasinan province, where about 33,600 ha of yellow maize are grown, mostly in R-M systems. Combined grain yields of the system reached 14 t/ha in the first year and 21 t/ha in the second year, depending on the treatment. Yield differences were mostly due to climate-induced stresses in the first year and very favorable conditions in the second year. Varietal choice in rice was an option to reduce production losses by selecting the variety according to average field-specific characteristics (drought-prone, favorable, flood-prone). Balanced fertilizer applications reduced stress-dependent rice yield losses considerably, and helped to maximize grain yield in the favorable season. The rice fertilizer treatment without any application caused lower yields in the subsequent maize crop but the effect was not significant. No effects of field topography on soil chara cteristics or on grain yields of rice or maize were detected. The nutrient balance indicated the considerable danger of soil nutrient mining in this cropping system, which could aggravate possible trends of declining soil organic matter concentrations in R-M systems that have been shown in previous studies. We concluded that a combination of adjusted management components can reduce production risk and optimize system productivity. To maintain system productivity, it seems most promising to combine different management elements, including balanced NPK fertilizer rates with limited PK mining, recycling of waste products from residue use on the farm as much as possible, and only limited removal of residues from the fields.

The United States was responsible for almost one third of the world's corn production in 2023/24. Most of the U.S. production is attributable to the Corn Belt, which is in the Midwest of the United States. Since the 1850s, corn has been the predominant crop in this area.

U.S. corn production

Most of the corn grow in in the U.S. is field corn. Field corn is not primarily for human consumption but is used to produce hundreds of other products such as ethanol, livestock feed, and other manufactured goods. In 2023, the U.S. harvested over 86 million acres of corn for grain. Wisconsin, California, and South Dakota were the top states producing corn for silage in the U.S. that year.

Global corn consumption: It’s Corn!

In 2022/23, just under 46 billion bushels of corn were consumed worldwide. The United States and China were the top consumers of corn in the world, each consuming over 11 billion bushels that year. Even though the U.S. leads in consumption globally, the consumption of sweet corn has declined drastically since 2015. Mexico, was the top importer of U.S. corn in 2022, followed by China.