WHEN soil becomes too concentrated with synthetic fertilizers, it becomes toxic that instead of giving off much harvest to anything planted on it, the opposite occurs.
So to detoxify the soil, scientists and agriculturists innovated fertilizers that come from organic materials. Detoxifying the soil is among the aims of Shukaku Rikiorganic fertilizer, aside from its aspiration to condition, stimulate, and enhance agricultural soils to also enrich farmers' and consumers' lives.
Shukaku Riki, which literally means Power Harvest, is produced by Eco Kaku Farms Inc., founded by Mr. Takao Ito and Hajime Yasamoto. It envisions to bringing about quality organic farm inputs that are affordable so that both farmers and consumers live a life that is strong and holistic.
Shukako Riki, formulated and manufactured in Japan with Japanese latest technology, is made of pure organic components such as bacteria and probiotic microorganisms that are beneficial to the soil. Several studies, research, and demonstrations have already been conducted here and in Japan to really find out its effect on crops and the soil and all showed positive results.
In Panama Disease-affected bananas, product developer director Jimmy Basan noticed in their demonstration that Shukaku Riki has 93 percent efficacy rate.
Basan, a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Major in Plant Pathology graduate of the University of Southern Mindanao (USM)-Kabacan, emphasized that a banana plant afflicted with Panama Disease was gradually healed after around 27 days of treatment using Shukaku Riki. A few weeks after the plant was healed, it eventually bore fruit.
Mr. Yasamoto, for his part, said that with this result, Shukaku Riki can already claim that it is the solution to the most-dreaded Panama Disease of banana plants.
In rice production, meanwhile, Leonil Taglucop said that they have recorded that crops applied with pure synthetic fertilizer could only generate a farmer an income of P88,000 per hectare, while if they employ 50 percent synthetic fertilizer and 50 percent Shukako Riki, the yield was reported to reach at P110,000, a difference of P22,000.
Aside from that, Taglucop, also an agriculturist majored in Agronomy at Mindanao State University-Marawi, said they have also recorded a better soil condition after applying Shukaku Riki.
He added that they are confident that with Japan’s technology and combined expertise of Filipino and Japanese scientists and agriculturists, Shukaku Riki’s effectiveness is unparalleled and a breakthrough in farming technology.
Meanwhile, several companies and individuals have signified their interest to distribute Shukaku Riki that during the product's launching last Friday, March 25, 2022, they also signed a contract as its distributors.
These companies and individuals have various reasons why they put their trust to Shukaku Riki.
For Edwardson Ocot, manager at AgviReau Solutions, the product is in line with their program to introduce sustainable farming technologies.
"We already have soil conditioner but to complete our portfolio, we also have to introduce bio microbial-inoculant, and we see the potential of Shukaku Riki," Ocot said during an interview at the sideline of the event, adding that he himself have seen the effectiveness of Shukaku Riki compared to synthetic fertilizers.
Ana Tampos, of Vicsmin, who is also in-charge with the corporate social responsibility of HBC-Systems Inc., said that her vision and principle is "to feed the soil so that the soil will feed the plant, and the plant will feed us."
She said nothing synthetic can feed the soil that's why nature has earthworms.
"The product that we have seen being launched, its function is like earthworms. They are feeding the soil," Tampos said.
Meanwhile for Julius Europa, who is a former bank employee as a loan officer, said that he was a witness to the long-time problem of banana growers who approached the bank to acquire loans to recover their losses because of Panama Disease.
"Nakita nako nga mura'g ni-boost ang morale sa mga banana growers nga at last, naa na gyuy produkto nga makatambal aning sakita nga ila nang giproblema for how many years. With this, nakita nato karon nga dako kaayo'g potensyal nga ma-sustain gyud ang saging industry (I saw that somehow the banana growers’ morale has been boosted because at last, there is already a product that can treat Panama disease which has been their dilemma for how many years now. With this product, we can see that there is big potential for the banana industry to be sustained)," Europa said.
He added that he is also a witness to the effectiveness of Shukaku Riki in treating Panama Disease since he went along with Eco Kaku Farms' team whenever they had demonstration or when they test their product during an experiment, thus he is confident that Shukaku Riki can deliver its promise.
At P850 per one-liter bottle, Shukako Riki can be used as preventive measure against Panama or other plant diseases, at an application of only six liters per hectare per month or depending on the number of plants aimed to be protected.