NU6 Idea 2: ALTERNATIVE ORGANIC FERTILIZERS
Fertilizer cost, with commercial inorganic fertilizers, comprises about 30% of the total production cost in rice and other major crops in the Philippines. But the present technology of inorganic commercial agricultural fertilizer is grossly inefficient, expensive and damaging to the environment.The allegations are not without basis. Urea, agriculture's main source of Nitrogen, is only about 30% efficient as it is vulnerable to ammonia volatilization & greenhouse emission once exposed to air and moisture, a precursor to global warming, and nitrate leaching which is responsible for the eradication of beneficial living organism in the water ecosystem of agricultural communities.Plant utilization of Phosphorous in Phosphate fertilizers, like 18-46-0, 16-20-0 & 14-14-14 is only about 30%. Once applied into the soil, 70% is immediately tied up in the soil as insoluble phosphorous. The soil is thus inundated yearly with massive insoluble phosphate fertilizers which the plants can't absorb and causing massive soil chemical imbalance and intensified heavy metals concentrations.Water ecosystem in the countryside are now without fishes and other beneficial organism due to the unhampered leaching of nitrate in the river with the use of Urea as the nitrogen source.In recent years farmers have been observed to reduce fertilizer usage by 30% due to their prohibitive cost thereby pulling down the national yield average per hectare in the Philippines. Environmental groups and various government agencies are now in fervent search for a more efficient, cheaper and environment friendly alternative technology hence many are now going into organic farming.The solution: organic acids (generic, patent pending), belonging to the carboxylic polymer family, acting as nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer efficiency enhancers that inhibit nitrification and thus NO3- leaching and N2 gas volatilization and phosphorus fixation which intensifies N and P solubility and availability within the growth period of most crops.The best benefit is it increases plant utilization of Nitrogen & Phosphorous from 30% to as high as 80% by inhibiting Nitrogen losses through ammonia volatilization and nitrate leaching, and preventing Phosphorous locked up in the soil. The chemical presence of Urea and Phosphate are stabilized in the soil retaining their availability for plant uptake for the entire cropping season. It is not a farfetched possibility that all fertilizers may be coated with organic acids in the near future.Elizabeth Carlos-Timbol 4
