Bio-fertilizer machines help turn household waste into farm inputs

With the Philippines gaining recognition all over Asia for achievements in organic farming, the Department of Agriculture is ramping up efforts to popularize the use of bio-fertilizers, particularly through composting as a community activity.

To fuel the initiative for composting, the DA’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) through the National Organic Agriculture Program (NOAP) prepared a P100-million package of composting facilities for biodegradable wastes (CFBW) and small-scale composting facilities (SSCFs) for nationwide distribution.

The package is composed of 172 units of CFBWs and SSCFs that would go to qualified local governments, to help raise their capabilities in terms of sorting, collecting and composting their community wastes and to lessen the dependence of the farmers to commercial fertilizers.

As of February this year, the BSWM has turned over to end-user beneficiaries half of the package or 83 CFBWs worth P49 million nationwide.

“We have been facing serious problems regarding proper management of waste disposal throughout the country,” says Silvino Q. Tejada, who is director of BSWM and national coordinator of NOAP.

According to the National Solid Waste Management Commission, the entire country generates at least 40,000 tons of biodegradable waste daily.

“Considering the large amount of biodegradable wastes coming from city and town markets and residences, there is a need to set-up facilities near markets, trading posts and residential areas that will convert those wastes into organic fertilizers or compost that farmers and other interested groups could use,” Tejada says.

Citing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the BSWM said composting could divert up to 150 kg of food waste per household per year from local collection authorities.

As for CFBW, it can process one to two tons of biodegradable collected wastes and produce 500 kg of organic fertilizer in a span of two weeks.

Tejada said that through the use of these facilities, rural and urban communities were expected to improve their net income, reduce production cost and promote environmental protection through the use of organic fertilizers produced from biodegradable community wastes.

To help beneficiaries learn how to use the composting machines, the BSWM recently conducted a three-day workshop in collaboration with the  Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance (Sipag) Farm School in Las Piñas City. Those who underwent training included at least 60 city agriculturists, municipal agricultural officers and LGU representatives nationwide.

Elmer V. Santiago, agricultural officer of Laoag City, says the training highlighted the importance of the composting machines in terms of waste disposal management, promoting good agricultural practices through organic farming and environmental protection by bringing back the residues to the soils.

“This gives us more idea on how we can operate the facility to benefit more farmers in the community and the local government of Laoag as well,” Santiago says. “We appreciate the opportunities to learn new technologies.”

Also in February, the BSWM distributed 17 units of the composting machines to farmers’ groups in Orani, Bataan, particularly as part of efforts to promote the use of organic inputs and bio-fertilizers in rice and high value crops production.

Aside from Bataan, the units that have been delivered went to beneficiaries in the Cordilleras, Ilocandia and Calabarzon in Luzon; Western, Central and Eastern Visayas, and Northern and Central Mindanao.

Since 2009, NOAP has established 138 community-based composting facilities in Apayao, Abra, Kalinga, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Benguet and Baguio.

Capable of producing 60 to 80 bags of composts every 45 days, these facilities are expected to reduce the dependence of farmers to chemical inputs by encouraging them  to produce their own organic fertilizers.

According to Tejada, higher profit is expected because these facilities can provide the vermicast/vermicompost requirement of farmer-beneficiaries within the targeted 100-hectare cluster farms and sell the remainder to other farm owners.