Helping the farmers cope with the hurdles in rice cultivation amid the rising prices of inputs, particularly fertilizer, the Department of Agriculture (DA) promoted the technology for a Balanced Fertilization Strategy (BFS) incorporating inorganic and organic fertilizer in the field.

To hasten the campaign based dubbed Abonong Swak, DA-Caraga conducted a Media Briefing on June 24, 2022, to make media practitioners adept with the technology and be an effective partner in the dissemination campaign.

“Your presence today is a manifestation of your strong commitment to helping the farmers through your programs, and we are so thankful for that,” she noted. 

The Media Briefing for Abonong Swak is a kick-off activity for an Information Caravan of Abonong Swak for the Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) in the local government units this month of July.

DA-Caraga Regional Executive Director Engr. Ricardo M. Oñate said the Abonong Swak campaign supports the agency’s Balanced Fertilization Strategy, highlighting the importance of combining organic and inorganic fertilizer to reduce production costs while ensuring a higher yield.

“This campaign aims to widen the utilization of both organic and inorganic fertilizers. With our goal to empower the farmers in addressing the rising fertilizer prices, this can only be successful with the LGUs and farmers embracing the Abonong Swak recommendations,” he said.

According to Regie Bicamon, Senior Agriculturist at DA-Regional Soils Laboratory, the idea of Balanced Fertilization in this time is a revival undertaking since it had been introduced more than 20 years ago.

She also explained the different recommended combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers based on targeted production volume and stressed that by following the technology, farmers could save production costs.

“The Combo 1 entails 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms (kgs) per hectare (ha) target production; Combo 2 has 5,000 to 6,000 kgs per ha target production; while Combo 3 includes 7,000 to 8,000 kgs per ha target production. Following the Abonong Swak technology, farmers could save P2,000 to P4,000 a hectare,” she said.

Enocensio B. Minguez, Agriculturist  II, BFS Focal Person said that there will be 18 sites to be established in five provinces in the region to showcase the three combos for the farmers to see for themselves advantages of adopting the technology.

“We provide input on demo sites based on the farmers’ choice of combo. The result will be a strong evidence to our farmers on the effectiveness of Abonong Swak,” he concluded.

BFS is a strategy laid out for the farmers to choose among the three recommended fertilizer applications based on their budget, and the target yield, incorporating organic and inorganic to lessen the dependency on the inorganic inputs to cut down production expenses. (Lovely Joy Saludez/DA-Caraga)