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Over 8,000 50-kilogram (kg) luggage of fertilizers value practically P13 million have been broken by Hurricane Odette, placing stress on the nation’s provide of the farm enter, the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) mentioned.
FPA, an hooked up company of the Division of Agriculture (DA), mentioned licensed warehouses owned by 9 fertilizer handlers in 5 areas have been struck by Odette final December.
“A complete of 8,312 luggage of fertilizers in several grades have been among the many property broken by the storm, accounting for round 415,600 kilograms of high quality compromised fertilizer shares in mentioned provinces,” it mentioned in a current assertion.
“Handlers such because the Cardinal Farm Provide accounted for 4,492 luggage in Surigao del Norte, whereas the Atlas Fertilizer Firm accounted for two,547 luggage in Cebu and the Falcor Advertising Company 1,031 luggage in Negros Occidental.”
The FPA mentioned it performed the monitoring of affected areas final December and launched the outcomes final Monday. The company pegged the estimated worth of compromised fertilizers at P12.96 million.
“The provinces of Surigao del Norte, Cebu Metropolis, and Negros Occidental constituted 97 % of the overall worth with P6.45 million, P4.15 million, and P1.92 million, respectively,” it added.
Based mostly on FPA knowledge, the storm broken luggage of ammonium sulphate, full fertilizer and muriate of potash value P2.79 million, P2.79 million, and P3.91 million, respectively. Odette additionally destroyed luggage of urea valued at P1.64 million.
“Regardless of the recorded damages, costs of fertilizers won’t be affected, and the importation costs will nonetheless dictate their costs,” the FPA mentioned.
Nevertheless, knowledge launched by the FPA confirmed that there’s a scarcity of fertilizer in Odette-affected provinces of Palawan, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Southern Leyte and Surigao del Norte.
“Based mostly on the present fertilizer inventory stock of January 24-28, 2022, all affected provinces have inadequate fertilizer to provide the estimated advice apart from the Urea and Muriate of Potash [MOP] in Negros Occidental,” it mentioned.
Based mostly on FPA’s computation, the overall advisable fertilizer in all affected provinces stood at 3.010 million 50-kilogram luggage whereas whole provide was solely at 947,624 50-kilogram luggage. The FPA primarily based its computations on the advisable fertilizer use per crop and present fertilizer inventory stock as of January 24 to twenty-eight.
“To mitigate the issue, different sources of fertilization ought to be used. For Coconut, inexperienced manure like ipil-ipil and farm natural wastes corresponding to manure of cattle, carabao, pig, goat, rooster, compost, and night time soil can be utilized to switch a part of the business fertilizer necessities,” the FPA mentioned.
“Coconut crown residues as natural fertilizer and nitrogen-fixing legumes can substitute for Ammonium Sulphate as N-sources whereas cocopeat and husk might used for chlorine,” the FPA added.
The FPA mentioned it’s presently negotiating with China to safe a fertilizer provide deal to assist Filipino farmers deal with the spike within the costs of fertilizer grades. Costs have greater than doubled to P2,500 per 50-kg bag.
The Philippines is providing to purchase urea from China at $500 per metric ton, decrease than costs quoted in Europe however greater in comparison with some China commodity exchanges. (Associated story right here: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/02/01/phl-talks-to-china-on-fertilizers-as-prices-soar/).
Picture credit: James MacDonald/Bloomberg
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