Operation: Welcoming Biofertilizers!

After a year under the Marcos administration, the Philippines has been experiencing changes, especially in upgrading and modernizing the agricultural process here in the Philippines, prioritizing the budget and the cost-effectiveness of the products needed for improving the agriculture sector One of these changes includes promoting biofertilizers to be used by local farmers.

The leading purpose of biofertilizers is to lessen the countryʼs dependence on expensive and imported petroleum-based fertilizers Also, it is a reasonable price for local farmers to use as the pandemic bruises farmers with more expensive farming materials such as pesticides and fertilizers

Currently, the Department of Agriculture conducts trials on biofertilizers in the Philippines President Marcos stated that these biofertilizers brought promising results from all the conducted trials The possibility of producing these is high, especially with the technologies from UPLB (University of the Philippines Los Banos) the other SUCs (state universities and colleges), and agricultural colleges

Yes to Biofertilizers

Biofertilizers are live or dormant cells with microorganisms that are applied to soil, seeds, or seedlings to increase the availability and uptake of nutrients from the ground They make the soil more fertile and encourage plant development

Among the benefits of biofertilizers are their low cost, high-quality provision of micronutrients and micro-compounds, provision of organic matter, production of growth hormones, and ability to mitigate the drawbacks of chemical fertilizers Biofertilizers eliminate the toxic elements in the soil that lead to plant illnesses Biofertilizers shield plants against drought and other harsh situations

A comparison between biofertilizers and petroleum-based fertilizers, which the Philippines has been using shows that chemical fertilizers degrade the soil and lowers crop yield On the other hand, biofertilizers supply essential nutrients like nitrogen, vitamins, and proteins to the ground and increase their capacity to retain water