To cushion the impact of soaring prices of fertilizer to rice farmers, the Department of Agriculture is stepping up its campaign on the technology dubbed “Abonong Swak! Swak sa Budget! Swak sa Palay!”.

Dr. Rodolfo P. Estigoy, Senior Technical Adviser for Strategic Communications of DA-Central Office meet with the members of the Caraga Regional Technical Working Group (RTWG) on Abonong Swak on June 2, 2022.

In the said meeting, Dr. Estigoy lauded OneDA Caraga Family for initiatives undertaken to promote Abonong Swak in various ways.

“You set the pace, you are the trendsetter,” said Dr. Estigoy upon hearing about the initiatives done in the region for the promotion of the Balance Fertilization Strategy (BFS).

Other OneDA Caraga members who attended the meeting such as Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), and Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) also promoted the technology in their respective activities.

“Your effort is commendable, you are one step ahead in terms of your initiatives and collaboration among OneDA family in your region,” he said.

Inosencio B. Minguez, TWG Chairperson also reported that to further promote Abonong Swak at the farmer’s level, DA-Caraga Rice Program will implement technology demonstrations in five provinces in the region starting June to showcase to the farmers the advantages of adopting the so called-combo packages of the Abonong Swak.

“As of now we are targeting around 15 techno demo sites all over the region or 3 sites for every province showcasing the 3 combos, the set of combination of inorganic and organic fertilizer application in the rice field,” Minguez said.

Abonong Swak is a technology campaign based on Balance Fertilization Strategy (BFS) wherein it gives farmers a set of fertilizer combinations to choose from based on their farm budget and target yield.

It aims to lower the expenses of the farmers on fertilizer while providing the need for their rice plant to increase the total yield per hectare.

“The high price of inorganic fertilizer is not a reason for the farmers to deprive the plant of the nutrients they need, there are still ways to cut down the expenses of the farmers by adopting this technology,” Dr. Estigoy emphasized.

He added that BFS is an old science-based technology but had not been given priority due to the affordability of the farm inputs previously. Now is the high time to consider it to sustain the local production of rice in the Philippines.  (Aurelius P. Arais/ DA-Caraga)