"The program, launched last year, has been incorporated as part of measures to maximize gains from the mild rains brought on by the La Niña weather phenomenon," said BSWM director Rogelio Concepcion.
He said that so far, P41 million was already approved for release in the next two weeks by the Department of Budget and Management while another P195 million is expected to be released during the planting season for rice and corn, the country’s major staples.
Concepcion said the program covers key crop-production areas in 589 municipalities nationwide.
Funds for the P246-million "Tipid Abono Fertilization Program and Modified Rapid Composting" will come from the P298-million commodity assistance grant under the RP-Japan program for the Increase of Food Production or the 2KR program approved last year by the Japanese government.
The grant is being managed by the National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NAFC), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA) while the program will be spearheaded by the BSWM.
The 2KR program, a commodity assistance grant provided by the Japanese government will be monetized by NAFC, the proceeds of which will fund two of the DA’s development initiatives intended to boost its rice production program.
These are the P246-million support system for the "Tipid Abono" fertilization program and the P52-million rehabilitation program of the Aganan River irrigation system in Iloilo.
These projects support the development of new rice lands and promote cheaper farming and marketing operations.
The Tipid Abono Program is a three-year initiative running along two tracks, namely: the fertilizer subsidy component and the technology transfer component.
A short-term, one-season intervention, the fertilizer subsidy component will provide a P500-per-hectare subsidy in the form of discount coupons for fertilizers to farmers planting hybrid rice and adopting the "Tipid Abono" fertilization technology.
The technology aims to reduce rice production cost through the judicious and minimum fertilizer applications. It prescribes right mixture and amount of fertilizers for specific soil types that will ensure optimum yield of seven tons per hectare without lowering soil fertility.
The fertilizer subsidy scheme will initially cover 251,000 hectares in 32 provinces for one cropping season. The technology transfer component involves, among others, the establishment of "Tipid Abono" demonstration farms involving some 7,200 hectares in 32 major rice-producing provinces. The farms will showcase site-specific reformulated fertilizer mixes.
It will also involve the production and distribution in 84 provinces of a national fertilizer distribution guide maps as well as practical tools and kits for soil nutrient analysis.
Once completed, the project will raise rice production in the project areas. Service area will expand by 304 hectares to 4,506 hectares and the number of farmer-beneficiaries by almost 200 to 3,077.
Rice paddies are expected to yield 100 cavans per hectare during the wet season, and 90 cavans during the dry season.
Moreover, cost of irrigation system maintenance is expected to drop by P700,000, from P1.2 million to only P500,000.