TO reduce food inflation by focusing on the Filipino staple, the Department of Agriculture (DA), in coordination with the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and Congress, is approaching the challenges with multiple-pronged strategies.

The immediate solution is to provide a price buffering mechanism against high import costs.

On a larger scale, the government is reviewing its tax and tariff systems while it shores up international agreements and establishes forward contracts with global rice exporters.

One company is aggressively providing essential support that spells the difference between low and high productivity and low and higher incomes for rice farmers.

BioPrime Agri Industries Inc. (BioPrime Philippines), a Philippine company incorporated in 2019, started developing inexpensive non-chemical and non-synthetic fertilizers. It has acquired the manufacturing and intellectual property rights for biofertilizer technologies already in global use by farmers in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Tanzania and Kenya.

BioPrime’s planned production capacity sufficient for 12 million hectares per year translates to a narrowing rice production and supply gap that keeps prices high and low income for farmers.

In collaboration with the DA, the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the International Rice Research Institute, BioPrime has shown increased yields and reduced fertilizer input costs by as much as 50 percent. Tests have also proven that BioPrime reduces the need for harmful chemical pesticides.

Following the Vietnamese carbon credits model, which BioPrime Philippines helped develop along the Mekong Delta using high-tech drone technology, the company seeks to generate carbon credits where its income is shared with farmers who use the product. BioPrime fertilizers contain live microorganisms that colonize inside plants and encourage growth by increasing a plant’s nutrients that increase crop yields.

This game-changer in yield, income and sustainability could make the Philippines again a leader in Southeast Asian agriculture for technological advancement.

Published Date: June 10, 2024