AMID THE SPIRALING PRICES OF COML. FERTILIZER
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
DAGUPAN CITY – Because of the skyrocketing prices of commercial fertilizer, two agricultural experts in the country see the increase use by Filipino farmers of organic fertilizer to mitigate their deplorable plight.
Former Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol saw the unprecedented increase of fertilizer from P800 to P25,000 for the eight to ten sacks that paddy rice farmers customarily use that gravitate them to use organic fertilizer.
“But there are several foliar fertilizer brands which have been proven effective actually and I used at least three of these in my farm with good results - AMO Organic Fertilizer, BioGold, and Amway,” he wrote recently on his popular Facebook Page.
Piñol, advocating to reverse the sorry fate of farmers in case he wins a Senate seat, met with former Pangasinan Congressman Eric Acuña whose company produces the AMO Plant Growth Enhancer (APGE) and asked him how his product benefits on the price hike of the petroleum and other fossil fuels based fertilizer.
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| Photo is internet grabbed. |
AMO 5-in-1 formulata is an organic kelp based fertilizer and soil conditioner, growth enhancer, foliar, fungicide and insect repellent.
“Tumaas daw by 300% ang kanilang sales and the company could hardly cope with the market demand now,” Piñol quipped when he interviewed the solon when he visited recently this city.
Acuña said the inflationary price of this world wide problem obliged farmers to reduce their consumption of the traditional fertilizer in favor of his product.
“Yes! Marami nang gumagamit kasi maraming bumibili ngayon kasi tinangal nila ang chemical feature”.
With four sacks out of the eight to ten sacks of the synthetic fertilizer being replaced by four sachets of APGE, the farmers can save fifty to seventy percent of their previous P2,7000 expenses.
“Ang niri-require namin sa kanila kalahati. So kung ten to eight iyang apat na lang muna ang gagamitin nila tapos AMO na apat pakete. P700 ang isa - P2,800. Halos isang presyo lang ang tinangal mo sa commercial na fertilizer. Apat ang tatangalin mo hindi ka na gagastus sa chemical, insecticide, at fungicide".
Sweet pomelo planter Jerry Reyes of M’lang, Cotabato said he mixed a sachet of AMO in three drums of water and sprayed them in his crop where he got a robust harvest.
Acuña sees that with the spiraling prices of commercial fertilizer and the increase consumption by the farmhands of organic fertilizer, the lands damaged by the chemicals can be eventually revived.
“Bakit acidic ho ang soil natin? Dahil gumagamit din tayo ng chemical, insecticide, fungicide, saka fertilizer. So pag binawasan natin at nagpractice tayo ng composting puwede na nating tanggalin iyan”.
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A high official of the Department of Agriculture attested in 2018 how the seaweed based fertilizer significantly increased the harvest of rice farmers Sual, Pangasinan while they reduced their expenses.
“Tumaas po ang ani nila and saka iyong cost bumaba siya,” declared to GMA-7 regional television by Dr. Jovita Datuin, the chief Science Research Specialist of the Department of Agriculture Region-1, after a farm trial in this western Pangasinan town of AMO.
Dr. Datuin said that despite the farmers not using insecticide, the department found out that the root development and yield of the palay hike.
“Tumaas po iyong yield nila at maganda pa rin iyong leaf color at mga parameters na tinitingnan ng mga researchers na tumutok okay po siya,” she stressed.
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