The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, who was guest of honor and speaker at the inauguration Sunday of the P200-million Bio N biofertilizer plant facility of the Agri Specialist Inc. in Sta. Rosa, Laguna asked why the adoption of biofertilizer in the rice sector has been too slow and why there was more imported biofertilizers when a local- licensed commercial plant like ASI has the capacity to provide the entire biofertilizer requirement of the rice industry.
In a speech, he asked the Department of Agriculture to aggressively push locally-made, income and job generating plant facilities like ASI over those of imported ones because 1) there is less drain on the country’s foreign exchange reserves; 2) they are cheaper and can rejuvenate the already degraded rice fields of the country and most importantly 3) they can improve farmers’ income through savings from imported chemical fertilizer and improved plant yields while and subsequently reduce the retail price of rice to end-consumers including the farmers.
During the inauguration, ASI held a symbolic donation of boxes of Bio N biofertilizers to farmers groups in the country, particularly those involved in the FARM program of the Speaker. FARM stands for Farmers’ Assistance for Recovery and Modernization, whose vision is to reduce retail price of rice to below the maximum standard retail price (MSRP) of the DA for imported rice.
Dr. Emil Javier, former president of UP Los Banos Biotech Institute, which developed and patented the bacteria (Azospirillum) used in Bio N biofertilizer, explained that Bio N can be used for all types of crops aside from rice and corn. He said he was delighted when ASI, founded and led by Dr. Mario Labadan, decided to invest heavily in the plant, which he describes as a supermarket-type operation compared to what he called the former arrangement between the DA and UPLB-Biotech as “sari sari store” operation using the old and low tech shakers that were distributed to the regions but which could only supply a small fraction of the needs of farmers, and therefore was unsustainable, inefficient and cumbersome.
The inauguration was attended by numerous scientists from UPLB-Biotech, ASI officials and employees, several farmers’ groups around the country, business leaders and potential investors, local officials of Laguna, officials of the Departments of TRade and Industry and Science and Technology, , representatives from the Office of Special Assistant to the President Secretary Antonio Ernesto Floirendo Lagdameo (whose uncle died the night before); the DA including Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority Acting Executive Director Glenn Estrada, the technicians and farm service providers of ASI, and many more. The Speaker came along with his wife, Rep. Yedda and two daughters.
The Speaker reiterated the commitment of President Marcos to push sustainable agriculture– which includes the use of a cocktail of chemical and organic, biofertilizers, soil enrichers and soil ameliorants and other inputs to ensure the continued productivity of farms and reduce the cost of producing rice for farmers and self-sufficiency for the staple sometime in the future.
ASI chairman Dr. Labadan said his vision is to be able to spread the use of Bio N to all rice farms in the country and eventually garner initially 30 percent of the local rice farms so that “we can show to the world we have a product that can meet international standards and would be cheaper than biofertilizers sold abroad to revitalize their ailing farmlands.”
His son, ASI president Mario Labadan Jr., said it would be easier to convince our neighbors in Asia (ASEAN particularly) that we have a product that has been tested for its efficacy and efficiency before we can ship out to them. But he is eyeing initial talks and shipment within the year or early 2026.
Though UPLB Biotech was founded by former President Marcos Sr. to be a homegrown industry that would ease the tediousness of farming, the push for biofertilizer had taken decades later (or during the time of Marcos Jr.) because of bureaucratic hurdles and the initial hesitance of farmers to this new natural (and endemic) technology, explained Dr. Javier to the media.