The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Friday defended its new guidelines in the nationwide mainstreaming of the use of “biofertilizers” against allegations it is “flawed.”
In a press conference in Malacañang last Friday, DA undersecretary Leocadio S. Sebastian explained that the P2,000 pesos per bag of “biofertlizers” in their Memorandum Order (MO) No. 32 or the Implementing Guidelines on the Distribution and Use of Biofertilizers is only for “illustration purposes.”
He explained the price of the biofertlizers is not fixed and can still be lower depending on the result of bidding process.
“The price of the biofertlizer in the market may be P500, P 1,000, or P1,500; The are also expensive variety at P3,000 or P5,000,” Sebastian said in Filipino.
If during the bidding process, he said, they will determine that the price of biofertilizer is much more expensive from urea, a common inorganic fertilizer, then no procurement will be initiated.
DA made clarification in response to the concern of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) that the MO could result to the government purchasing “overpriced” biofertilizers worth P2,000 per bag compared to the prevailing price of urea at P1,100 per bag.
Additional criteria
Aside from the bidding process, Sebastian said they also imposed other criteria for suppliers, which includes ensuring their biofertilizers are locally produced and will be effective in the location where it will be used.
They will also be required to teach the usage of their fertilizers to its intended farmer beneficiaries.
“Because what happens if it [fertilizer distribution] is a scam, you will be supplied with a product with poor quality and unregistered with the FPA (Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority), then the supplier will just disappear,” Sebastian said.
The new additional requirements, Leocadio said, aims to prevent the possible reoccurrence of the fertilizer fund scam in 2004 during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, wherein millions of government funds were lost in undistributed fertilizers.
“We don’t want a repeat of that fertilizer scam, that’s why we have developed this guideline so that we can have a fair, transparent and sure implementation,” Sebastian said.
But Sebastian pointed out that starting next year, the government will no longer procure biofertilizers.
Instead, he said, they will convert their program into a voucher scheme, wherein farmers will be allowed to use, whichever brand of biofertilizers they want.
DA said it will be requesting a P1.9 billion for their proposed biofertilizer vouchers.
Balanced fertilization
DA said the government decided to promote the use of biofertlizers, which is made of cultured microorganisms, in response to the spike in global prices of inorganic fertilizers last year.
It noted this led to local farmers reducing their fertilizer last year resulting to the country’s lower rice production.
“The Department of Agriculture saw the need to find other way so we do not become reliant on imported inorganic fertilizers,” Sebastian said.
The DA official said their new program to promote the use of biofertilizers in conjunction with other kinds of fertilizers also aims to improve the country’s declining soil fertility, which also contribute to low farm output.
“Balanced fertilization involves the use of organic fertilizer, biofertilizer and inorganic fertilizer – combination iyan. So this is the program which we want to promote to maintain our rice production in the Philippines,” Sebastian said.
“Our continued use of inorganic fertilizer is unsustainable, it is making our soil acidic and it is making our production plateauing,” he added.