Capiz promotes 'Tipid Abono' program
Roxas City -- The provincial government through its Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) is continuously advocating to Capiceño farmers the "Tipid Abono Program" to reduce their farm production costs.
"The program will help rice and corn farmers save from their farming expenses," said Provincial Agriculturist Sylvia dela Cruz.
The provincial initiative to help farmers is in line with the Department of Agriculture's (DA) campaign to use at least two affordable bio-fertilizer brands that increase crop yields by as much as 20%, as part of a long-term strategy to wean farmers away from the use of costly, imported chemical inputs.
The microbial-based fertilizers, with the trademark names Bio-Con and Bio-N, were developed by experts at the University of the Philippines campus in Los Baños, Laguna (UPLB).
Bio-N is a microbial-based inoculant that is available from suppliers in 49 newly established mixing plants nationwide, while Bio-Con is a commercially produced variety that is now being tested in the corn clusters of Mindanao, the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon and Palawan.
DA Secretary Arthur Yap said experts from the UPLB and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) have recommended the use of Bio-N and Biocon as affordable, growth-boosting and environment-friendly alternatives to imported chemical fertilizers after these were screened for their effectiveness on a variety of agricultural crops.
"The use of organic fertilizers will not only increase yields per hectare but will, in the long haul, actually save us hundreds of millions of pesos because this will help reduce the use of expensive, imported chemical fertilizers in palay and corn farms," Yap said.
He noted that Bio-N, for instance, already supplies at least 50% of the nitrogen requirements for rice, corn and vegetables, with only five 200-gram packets needed for seeds that are enough to plant one hectare of rice or corn.
Bio-N promotes shoot growth and root development in crops, increases the yields per hectare, and develops the resistance of corn to wind and certain plant diseases.
Moreover, BIO-N inoculants are environmentally safe and can eliminate the risk of ground water pollution caused by the leaching of nitrate especially in loose soils.
Biocon, on the other hand, also promotes growth, reduces the use of chemical fertilizers by 30%- 50%; with increases in yield ranging from 10% to 20%.
Yap noted that when Biocon was tested in rainfed rice farms in Koronadal, South Cotabato, the highest yield recorded with the use of this biofertilizer reached 6,583 kilograms compared with only 4,524 kilos without Biocon.
(PIA)