Biofertilizer is good but its cost is too high, Imee Marcos says

Although biofertilizer is good and farm yields are high, its price seems too steep and unreal. “Ang problema lamang, baka maging new fertilizer scam pagkat nakita ko yung mga presyong tinakda para sa biofertiliizer at yung mga presyo para sa regular fertilizer ng DA, ke taas-taas (The problem is, it might lead to a scam because the price difference between biofertilizers and regular fertilizer of the Department of Agriculture (DA) is too high,’’ Senator Imee Marcos, a former Ilocos Norte governor, said in an interview in Bulacan. “The price gap is ‘hindi naman makatotohanan (The price difference is not real),’’ she added. The price of a bag of bioterlizer was reported to be in the P4,000 compared to urea or regular fertilizer has now gone down to P1,200, she explained. Farmers might not be able to afford the P4,000 per bag tag price, she pointed out. Marcos, who used to buy regular fertilizer for distribution free to farmers when she was the Ilocos Norte governors, strongly suggested that government should instead give cash vouchers to farmers to buy their fertilizer requirements. “Siya na lang ang mamili kung ano ang angkop sa lupa niya. Mas okay na ‘yun. At siya na rin ang bumili kung saan niya gusto (Let the farmer buy his fertilizer that is appropriate for his land),’’she said. Marcos warned that there are also fake fertilizers. With the increasing prices of chemical fertilizers, further worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war, the Department of Agriculture (DA) during the time of DA Secretary William Dar was strongly promoting the use of “Bio N,” a microbial-based fertilizer. “Given the exigencies of the times, we have to massively promote the use Filipino-developed technologies to enhance crop productivity and incomes of our farmers and fishers,” Dar said “One of these is Bio N, that was developed 40 years ago by Dr. Mercedes Umali-Garcia of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Biotech), at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB),” the DA chief said Available in 200-gram sachets, Bio N contains organisms capable of converting nitrogen from the air into ammonium nitrogen in the soil. It enhances shoot growth and root development and can replace 30 to 50 percent (%) of total chemical nitrogen requirement of crops, according to UPLB-Biotech. Five to six sachets of Bio N can replace two 50-kg bags of urea per hectare (ha) planted to rice.