Amidst the rising price of fertilizer in the country, the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice) will promote the use of balanced fertilizer during this dry season Lakbay Palay, April 6-7.

Together with the Bureau of Soils and Water Management, Agricultural Training Institute, and Agriculture and Fisheries Information Services, DA’s campaign “Abonong swak (Swak sa budget, swak sa palay),” will be launched to urge farmers to complement inorganic fertilizer application with organic.

Nutrient experts from DA said that organic fertilizers could provide the supplemental nutrition needed by the rice crop, and that farmers could also save P2,000 – P4,000 per hectare by using organic instead of inorganic fertilizers only.

Organic-inorganic fertilizer combinations based on their budget and target yield will be taught to the farmers.

Also conducted as the country celebrates this year’s Panagyaman (Thanksgiving) Rice Festival, Lakbay Palay is one of the Institute’s activities to help sustain the all-time high palay output of 19.96mt.
The Lakbay Palay will be held onsite for the first time since 2020.

Following the IATF protocol, around 250 onsite participants per day will visit the Future Rice and Palayamanan farms and will be shown the latest science and technology innovations in rice production.

The activity will also be aired through the Institute’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DAPhilRice.