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Monday, October 10, 2005
South Cotabato's fertile lands fast deteriorating
THE quality of soil in most parts of South Cotabato is reportedly fast declining due to the overuse of commercial inorganic or synthetic fertilizers by local farmers over the last decade, agriculture officials revealed.
Reynaldo Legaste, South Cotabato agriculture office chief, said that based on a recent survey and soil analysis they conducted in the province, the organic matter in the soil of most farmlands has drastically gone down to just 1.2 percent from a normal rate of five percent several years ago.
Legaste said such findings, which they consider very alarming, prompted the Provincial Government to promote the massive production and use of organic fertilizers.
"We've been actually starting to feel its negative effects on the level of our palay production and the situation may worsen if we would not be able to reverse this trend soon," Legaste said.
Legaste explained that the normal level of the organic matter in the soil should be at the five percent level to allow farmers to maximize their production capacities.
"Having a five percent organic matter in the soil means a palay farmer may be able to produce at least 80 to 100 bags of palay per hectare even without applying fertilizers," Legaste said.
Legaste cited that based on the palay farms they surveyed, the decline of the soil's organic matter caused the average yield to drop to less than 80 bags per hectare.
"It also forced some farmers to utilize at least eight to 10 sacks of the expensive inorganic commercial fertilizers just to come up with a better yield," he said.
Legaste said the problem might only be remedied by the massive application of natural or organic fertilizers and the stoppage of the use of the commercial inorganic fertilizers.
He added organic fertilizers will help increase the capacity of the soil, which is classified as light or sandy in most parts of the province, to hold the organic matter or nutrients needed by the crop. (Allen V. Estabillo)
(October 10, 2005 issue)
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