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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Trade & Industry devider BOI, AgriSpecialist mull biofertilizer partnership

BOI, AgriSpecialist mull biofertilizer partnership

Published Jan 5, 2024 04:54 am

The Board of Investments (BOI) is in talks with AgriSpecialist Inc. (ASI) for a potential collaboration in the biofertilizer industry, said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). 

BOI, the country's premier investment promotion agency under the DTI, representatives visited the ASI biofertilizer manufacturing facility in Sta. Rosa, Laguna last Dec. 20, and participated in a guided tour led by ASI officials. 

AgriSpecialist-enhanced-promotion-of-PHs-biofertilizer-products.jpg
(L-R): Ms. Catherine Amante, UPLB-TTBDO Technical Staff; Ms. Mary-Anne Jiao, Executive Vice President-ASI; Dir. Emil John Cabrera, UPLB-TTBDO; Mr. Mario Labadan, Jr., President-ASI, Mr. Francis Penafor, RBIS-BOI; Director Echague; and Ms. Marikon Bravante, RBIS-BOI.

A statement released by the DTI on Jan. 2 stated that BOI Resource-Based Industries Service (RBIS) Director Raquel Echague and ASI President Mario Labadan Jr. discussed market sustainability for biofertilizer producers, especially in marketing them to local farmers. 

The agency cited a specific biofertilizer Bio-N developed by the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) - Nation AL Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. 

It explained that around "five to six 200-gram sachets of Bio-N can reportedly replace two 50-kg bags of urea per hectare planted with rice," and can "potentially crop yields by 11 percent."

With Bio-N, farmers are able to save costs of up to P10,000 per hectare, it added. 

To conduct the partnership efficiently, the agency shared that the BOI and AIS "agreed  that they should place a premium on having an industrialization partner from the beginning of the research and development (R&D) process. "

UPLB Professor and National Scientist Dr. Emil Javier also shared his expertise, stating that public-private partnership (PPP) can possibly "fully optimize existing local researchers in these products." 

The Laguna facility, which is producing Bio-N, is being eyed as the potential "first commercial-scale manufacturing plant for biofertilizer," said DTI. 

By expanding the facility, it can accommodate 100 percent of the country’s biofertilizer requirement for lands planting rice and corn crops. 

 

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