By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Let us forget for the meantime the ongoing theatrics in the Senate and Congress where
the VP did not answer head on the questions of solons related to the previous funds appropriated to the OVP. Madam Sara D. made history by “foregoing the opportunity to defend the proposed OVP 2025 budget” and saying in effect that she will just allow members of congress to approve it. First time ever that a head of office did this in a legislative budget hearing.
Ditto with the dramatics happening in Davao city, particularly at the KOJC compound.
There are other important matters that we should pay attention to like agricultural products smuggling, including veggies.
Aggie product smuggling is a continuing reality, unfortunately. There are almost weekly discoveries about this by the Bureau of Customs. Some were already found in storage houses. Some contrabands were apprehended while still within the BOC compound.
There is something so wrong when the smuggled goods are already sleeping in private warehouses. “Nakalusot sa Customs”? Somebody was snoring when the goods were taken out!
Of course, the amount discovered/apprehended is just miniscule compared to what actually arrived or gotten out of the Customs compound, according to many sources. And, no names of persons responsible for the smuggling were ever mentioned. Therefore, no one was made accountable. It is clearly fiesta days ahead for smugglers. These are the cases that should be seriously investigated, in order to come up with an appropriate legislation to curb smuggling, especially agriculture products.
Senate and Congress should conduct the relevant public hearings open to the public, as they are doing with trivial matters that have only very limited, personal applications.
It is also very disconcerting to know that agriculture growth is almost negligible at the moment prompting an analyst to declare that we can not expect the aggie sector to grow with the present leadership at the DA.
I would like to believe though that the current DA leadership is also doing its best to address the problems besetting the sector. It had been providing help to farmers and fisherfolks, left and right, in the entire country. If statistics say otherwise, I can’t do anything.
Since time immemorial, we have been looking for ways-complete with very good slogans- to increase agricultural production (and more profit for farmers), notably in rice and corn. To attain this, we are also on the look out for technologies that we could utilize that will protect the environment at the same time.
In our midst now, is a product that suits the above. It is now used nationwide, but somehow still in a limited scale. What is a positive development is that the government is now starting to take cognizance of this effective farm input.
The product is called Unigrow, an FPA-registered biofertilizer.
It had undergone the requisite fertilizer derby of PHILRICE, and some other techno-Demo trials in various parts of the Philippines. In those trials/derbies it always ranked first or second. It had been used for rice, corn, vegetables and others. It performed as the best product for vegetable production derby in Cebu. Also the leading one in the rice derby of PHILRICE.
The current cost of producing one kg of palay in the country is PHP11-12.00. But with Unigegrow, the cost is only PhP6.50-7.50. This is the reason why rice was sold daily at the DA Main compound for only PhP25.00/kg for 6 consecutive months. When Sen. Loren Legarda heard of this, she said, “Pwede naman pala na less than PhP30.00/kilo ang bigas.” For his part, the present DA Sec, Francisco Tiu Laurel, asked someone who was telling him about the info above, “are you satisfied”? The answer of course is a big Yes.
When told that the source of Unigrow is China, the present Lady Gov. of Antique jokingly commented, “Ah, baka naman sa farm ako lumaki, yan”.
While Unigrow is made in China, it was actually developed in the USA by a Chinese-American who decided to manufacture it in the former due to lower cost of production.
This product should be a big boost to our vegetable production in the Cordillera, as proven by that Cebu Derby. By the way Cebu is producing the same veggies that Benguet produces. That’s why they have a facility similar to BAPTC in the municipality of Dalagete, but in a much smaller scale.
Unigrow contains the bacteria, Brevibacillus laterosporus that can make unavailable and fixed nutrients in the soil available for plant use. Thus, fertilizer application can be reduced up to 75%. In some cases, there is even no need for additional fertilizer application. In addition, the bacteria was certainly found to confer insecticidal and anti-pathogenic property to plants thereby reducing even the cost of crop protection-for both product and labor. Farmers should be winners by using this product.
The excellent product benefits can be summarized as follows: it advances harvesting; increases yield; guarantees strong and healthy roots; makes plant resistant to pests and diseases removing the need for pesticide application; restores the healthy state of the soil; reduces the use of chemical fertilizers; cost effective; increases farmer; profit.
UNIGROW, when properly appreciated, could be the savior of our farms for use by the future generations-with increased yield and profit to boot. **
