Bio-fertilizer give life to Iloilo farms sans urea - tests

ILOILO CITY - Bio-fertilizer gives life to farms without urea, tests in Iloilo Province show.

Before, Iloilo farmers have to navigate through the delicate balance of soaring urea prices and lost profits as prices of urea fertilizer shot passed the ceiling since last year. Its supply dropped after the Russo-Ukraine war broke out in February 2022. Though it went down from P3,500 to P1,500 per bag today, its present cost is still higher than before the war at P800 per bag.

"Demonstration farms" in Iloilo Province are proving that farm production are bouncing back without urea, Geron Magbanua, senior agriculturist at the provincial agriculture office (PAO) said. 

Farmers cooperating with the government research which in turn does so in collaboration with a private comjpany producing fertilizer, "are encouraged by the results of the validation tests"  in Passi City, New Lucena, Dingle, Tigbauan and Oton towns, added Magbanua.

He was designated "validator" by the PAO to work with the West Visayas Agricultural Research Center (WESVIARC), arm of the Department of Agriculture (DA) based in Jaro district, this city.

As "validator", Magbanua visits demonstration sites to observe palay crops in their different stages of growth. WESVIARC and a private company collaborate in testing the latter's products generically called "bio-fertilizer". "At present, they are testing it on rice but the goal is on all crops, rice and others and in all towns," he added.

Even if "end users" prefer to buy commercial bio-fertililzer instead of producing the inputs themselves, the costs are still low. The fertility of the soil is enhanced in the long run because of the "self-propagating" nature of the micro-organisms. Magbanua explain.

The technology is already practiced in countries like Japan, Thailand and Israel. Bio-fertilizer have  both organic and organic materials blended with "bio-catalyst organisms." He did not define what "bio-catalyst organism."  It has one advantage over chemical-based fertilizer: it can be fabricated by end users themselves out of farm plant and animal wastes, said Magbanua.

"So far, my validation visits to theh demonstration farms show that bio-fertilizer have comparable yield with those using urea or chemical outputs," he said.

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