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PRESUMING they are always at the losing end, farmers are
worried that the staggering increases in the price of
oil in the global market will also pull the cost of
fertilizer up in the next planting season.
In the
major rice-growing Central Luzon region, they agonize
over the government’s lack of clear program on rice
self-sufficiency that includes production subsidy,
particularly in the costly fertilizer, an inevitable
component in rice production.
The cost
of the 14-14-14 fertilizer for rice crop has shot up to
P1,800 per bag over the weekend. Last week, it cost
P1,600.
The
office of the provincial agriculture in Nueva Ecija also
reported that urea had remained at P1,300 per bag and
P850 for sulfite. In the last season, urea cost P920 a
bag while 14-14-14 cost P870 a bag.
Fertilizer cost eats up about a third of the production
budget of a one-hectare farm, and because of the
continued rise in prices, a farmer working on a hectare
of land would need about P50,000 in production
investment.
Ideally,
a farmer tending a hectare of rice farm should apply six
bags of 14-14-14 and two bags of urea in wet-season
cropping.
During
summer, nine bags of 14-14-14 and three bags of urea
complete the nutrient requirements of a one-hectare rice
farm, said Bernardo Valdez, Nueva Ecija assistant
provincial agriculturist.
Valdez
explained that dry-season crops need more fertilizer
because of the extreme heat that absorb the natural
nutrients in the plant.
Local
farmers lament this and the imbalance between the
production expenses and the P17-a-kilogram government
buying rate of palay or unmilled rice.
Rodrigo
Custodio, head of the
Luna
Rural Development
Center
and Tour Farm in Gen. Llanera, Nueva Ecija, predicted
that because of this development, farmers in his
neighboring villages will scrimp for fertilizer money in
the coming wet- season cropping.
“The
prices of fertilizer will surely go up further with [the
price of] oil and the farmers will again end up asking
loan from usurers,” he said.
To save
on expenses, many farmers admit they do not heed the
recommended volume of fertilizer applied on their rice
crop.
Isidro
Villaflor, former provincial agriculture officer in
Nueva Ecija, has, over the years, witnessed farmers
really cutting on the fertilizer volume applied in their
rice crop.
“Instead
of 12, they would put only six or eight bags. That is
another factor why production targets are, most of the
time, not met,” he said.
The
government has realized this predicament of farmers over
rising fertilizer prices.
In 2004,
the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice)
introduced the Leaf Color Chart, a tool that determines
the fertilizer need of the rice crop. It is a foot-rule
sized chart with various hues of green. Each hue
represents the nutrient lack of the palay crop and each
has a recommended corresponding amount of fertilizer to
apply. That way, Philrice technicians explained, the
farmers can economize in their production budget. But it
was either the Leaf Color Chart did not reach a big
number of farmers, or the farmers refused to use the
technology, said a Philrice technician. |
