DA says PBBM favors use of biofertilizers

PRESDIENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is promoting “balanced fertilization” with the aim of increasing rice growth and production in the country, an official of the Department of Agricultural ( DA) said on Friday.

In a press briefing at Malacañang, Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian said the DA recently issued Memorandum Order No. 32 embodying the guidelines on the distribution and use of biofertilizers to boost farmers’ productivity and rice output.

“Our rice production here in the Philippines, we saw last year, we had problems with the high prices of fertilizers, those inputs. And we saw in the Department of Agriculture, we need to find a way that we don’t rely too much on imported inorganic fertilizer,” Sebastian said.

“One more thing, the quality of our soil, when I was looking at it, I was analyzing our situation here in the Philippines, the soil fertility is also failing - the health of the soil. Our farmers know this. Even though we are pouring in... we have fertilizer subsidies, we have certified seeds that are being distributed, we see that it is not improving much because the health of our soil is failing,” the DA official noted.

With the promotion of the “balanced fertilization,” Sebastian said the farmers would be using organic fertilizer as basal with biofertilizer to improve the growth of rice seedlings.

“And the biofertilizer also harvests, you take nitrogen from the air or the soil, and convert it into nitrogen that the plant gets. Then there is still additional urea. So that’s what we call balanced fertilization,” Sebastian explained.