PH Congress To Subsidize Agriculture With P27B Budget For Chemical Fertilizers – Being Pro-Farmers & Anti-Filipinos!

Why is it that Filipino rice farmers insist on the expensive chemical fertilizers when they can use much-cheaper organic fertilizers and get higher yields? Asking for a friend!

Congress doesn’t care about Climate Change, only about Filipino farmers. Last June, Catherine Talavera says, lawmakers were asked to allocate “P27 Billion To Fund Fertilizer Subsidies” (01 June 2022, Philippine Star, philstar.com):

The government would need to provide around P27 billion worth of fertilizer subsidies for… rice farmers to support their production this cropping season as fertilizer prices continue to rise, the Federation of Free Farmers [FFF] said. FFF National Manager Raul Montemayor said that a P10,000 per hectare subsidy is needed to cover the increases in the prices of fertilizers.

Note: The P10,000/ha is only to cover the increases in fertilizer cost. Mr Montemayor says a farmer uses 6 bags of fertilizer.

“If a farmer uses six bags of fertilizer, and the cost has increased by P1,500 per bag on the average, total additional cost is P9,000,” Montemayor said. “We round it off to P10,000 to account for cost increases for pesticides, fuel, etc.  If we subsidize this, the cost will be P27 billion.”

Catherine Talavera says the DA estimates total fertilizer cost at P11,300 at average of 4 bags/ha urea (08 June 2022, “Rice Prices May Go Up By Yearend – DA Exec,”. OneNews, onenews.ph) This is no laughing matter: Fertilizers account for 30-40% of total cost of crop production!

Catherine Talavera says, “DA Urges Use Of Cheaper Fertilizers To Cut Costs” (08 June 2022, PhilStar, philstar.com). With Bio-N, at P100/sachet, rice farmers could save P10,700/ha with 6 sachets.

So why are PH farmers not using Bio-N? Good question!

On the other hand, Eireene Jairee Gomez says, “DA Endorses Cheaper Biofertilizers” (09 June 2022, Manila Times, manilatimes.net/):

“Given the exigencies of the times, we have to massively promote the use of Filipino-developed technologies to enhance crop productivity and incomes of our farmers and fishers," Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.

Mr Dar is referring to “Bio-N,” a microbial (organic) formulation by Mercedes Umali-Garcia of UP Los Baños some 40 years ago. Organic fertilizers would fight Climate Change, not cause it.

Not thinking Climate Change, UP Los Baños is not actually interested in promoting organic fertilizers – it would take the DA under Secretary Dar’s instruction to inquire about Bio-N.

I UPLB alumnus am interested in more than Bio-N – I am interested in an agriculture in which organic fertilizers are a part:

I am interested in replacing 100% Chemical Agriculture (CA) with Regenerative Agriculture (RA). To save billions of pesos! To save millions of lives!

In America, Rebecca Jacobson says, “Climate Change And Fertilizer Runoff Spell Bad News For Lake Erie,” PBS News Hour, pbs.org) – the bottom image shows the dark shadows of farmers near Erie causing fertilizer runoffs and polluting the waters. 

CA is pollutive of minds. Nobody is asking me, a not-so-ordinary Filipino citizen, but I’m recommending that our farmers switch from chemical to regenerative methods, to inflate their incomes and deflate Climate Change!@517