Biofertilizer industry in crisis

Last March 2024, University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB) chancellor Jose Camacho Jr. granted an exclusive license to agribusiness company Agri-Specialist Inc. (ASI) to use, produce, and sell the biofertilizer trademarked as "Bio-N" nationwide.

- By LEONARDO MONTEMAYOR*

In turn, ASI—a newcomer in the biofertilizer industry—has allegedly been telling existing and potential Bio-N clients, including farmers' cooperatives, private enterprises, and national and local government agencies, to stop making, marketing, or using Bio-N without ASI's permission. To date, however, ASI has not secured a certificate of product registration for Bio-N from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority under the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Currently, the production and supply of Bio-N in various areas has reportedly dwindled or stopped. This is harming thousands of rice, corn, and vegetable producers, who have been enjoying higher yields and substantial savings in urea fertilizer costs with this technology.

Under President Marcos' direction, Bio-N and other biofertilizers received increased public funding in a bid to reduce the country's dependence on imported and increasingly expensive inorganic farm inputs. For 2024, the DA has a P1.9-billion budget for the procurement of biofertilizers.

Bio-N was discovered in 1985 by Dr. Mercedes Garcia of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH) in UPLB. Dr. Garcia came up with an inoculant—derived from bacteria found in talahib grass roots—that enables rice and other crops to use nitrogen from the air. Bio-N technology was developed at BIOTECH with financial support from the DA and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).