The government should expand its fertilizer subsidy program and diversify the country’s import sources of the farm input to ease farmers’ woes with the rising fertilizer prices, a group said on Tuesday.
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) outlined its proposals to address the rising fertilizer prices in the country in a position paper submitted to lawmakers.
FFF Chairman Leonardo Q. Montemayor said the government may diversify sources of imported fertilizer, noting that the Philippines can tap Russia, a major fertilizer producer, given the warm relationship between the two countries.
“Following the warmer Philippine-Russian ties with his visits to Russia in 2017 and 2019, President Duterte should tap Russia as a reliable and reasonably priced supplier of fertilizer,” Montemayor said in the position paper dated September 6.
Montemayor, a former agriculture secretary, also recommended the expansion and improvement of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) current fertilizer subsidy program through “proper appropriations by Congress.”
Montemayor added that the government should also assist farmers and agricultural cooperatives “to become fertilizer dealers by providing them with financing and logistical support.” He also proposed the use of alternatives to chemical fertilizers such as organic inputs, azolla, vermicast, biofertilizers and others.
“Along this line, the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in the University of the Philippines at Los Baños has developed Mykovam, BioN, BioGroe and other cheap biofertilizer products for rice, corn, coconut, vegetables, fruit trees and other crops,” he said.
Montemayor also proposed the establishment of a national soil testing program “for more efficient and effective use of fertilizer and other imports.”
“The system should incorporate inexpensive and easily applied tools like the Leaf Color Chart of the Philippine Rice Research Institute,” he said.
“As in India, mobile laboratories or laboratories on wheels can be deployed to augment/supplement services provided by regional and provincial soil testing facilities,” he added.
Lastly, Montemayor recommended the amendment of Rice Trade Liberalization law and Coconut Farmers Industry Trust Fund Act to be able to use the funds earmarked under the two laws “to address rice and coconut farmers’ input needs.”
Last month, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar pronounced that the government is mulling over the importation of fertilizer and sell this at a subsidized cost to farmers in a bid to pull down the prevailing prices of the farm input that has been skyrocketing in recent weeks.
“We will continue to touch base with our international suppliers and hope we can buy, I mean the government can buy from them or the government can import these fertilizers so that it will have cheaper landed cost,” he said.
The Philippines is not spared from a global fertilizer supply problem caused by higher demand from countries expanding their farmlands and stockpiling by some countries, the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) said.
The FPA said Filipino farmers will have to endure high fertilizer prices as they are expected to remain elevated until the end of the year, particularly for phosphates and urea.
“It is a global issue of supply and demand. When there are more buyers and less inventory then prices go up,” FPA Executive Director Wilfredo C. Roldan said at a virtual news briefing last August.
“We are a net importer of fertilizer and we are losing supply [because other countries are buying more]. The tenders now among countries cannot be served and so we expect supplies to be limited,” Roldan added.
The average price of fertilizer has increased by as much as 40.5 percent on an annual basis depending on the grade, based on latest FPA data.
FPA data showed that the average price of granular urea in the last week of July rose by 40.5 percent to P1,393.32 per 50-kilogram bag from P991.45 per 50-kilogram bag recorded in the same period of last year.