With the steadily increasing prices of petroleum-based fertilizers and the deteriorating peso, Pentagon Agribusiness Corp., leader in the local production and marketing of Japanese sweet corn varieties, is slowly testing organic fertilization technologies in its farms both in Luzon and Mindanao.

Pentagon president and chief executive officer Arleen "Len" Valera said he is slowly discovering the wisdom of getting into organic fertilization, which "not only solves my rising cost of fertilization dramatically but also enhances the quality of both the soil and finished product."

Valera said that from P350 per bag of urea last year, his cost is now at P900 and the cost of diesel to run his water systems has also climbed steeply with the several price adjustments of crude oil since last year.

He said since he started experimenting with different kinds of organic farming technologies — from compost, to worms and other methods — they have experienced substantial improvements in the quality and productivity of their crops which now have more ears and more fully packed cobs.

"A three- to four-percent usage of organic fertilization leads to 50-percent success in the productivity of my farm and the recovery of saleable kernels," he said.

"Without organic fertilizers, I used to have a yield per hectare of 40,000 to 42,000 ears and with organic the yield is 45,000 to 48,000 ears per hectare," he added.

He said going organic has a large front-end cost such that he can not get into it completely in the different locations of his farm.

He currently plants 160 hectares of Japanese sweet corn in Floridablanca and Mexico, Pampanga and the rest in Bukidnon. All his farms are leased from farmers, who end up also being his laborers in the process.

Of the 160 hectares planted to his Japanese sweet corn in Luzon, only 40 hectares is now being experimented on with different organic fertilization techniques, from which he got experts from UP Los Baños (for its bio-ed); another company in Bukidnon, a vermiculture company; and another firm producing enzymes as soil enhancers. They have all agreed to test their technologies on-site or applying it right in his farms.

"I am not just studying the cost effectiveness of their products but the sustainability of their supply since I can not just get into this now and forget about it later," he said.

He said he has just started testing the feasibility of getting into organic sweet corn production that many companies abroad which have heard of it have expressed interest to become distributors in their locations.

He said demand for organic products in Europe is so much and "I have to study how I can sustain that market. I have to be there for the long haul, not just for the short time," he added.

In the local market, Pentagon is the biggest supplier of Japanese sweet corn in the market with 98 percent of its total production going to big and small supermarket chains. "Name a supermarket outlet, I am there," he said adding he has been supplying the supermarkets since

Unlike most corn farmers in the country, Valera is not subjected to the boom and bust market cycle since his 65-day crop is being planted daily on rotation in small areas of below a hectare. "Everyday I plant and harvest in separate areas. I have programmed my planting and harvesting based on the actual requirements of the market," he explained.

Valera recently tested the credit acceptability of his projects by applying for credit lines with three banks namely the Bank of the Philippine Islands (which approved it for P3.5 million); Land Bank of the Philippines (which made a final farm inspection only last Wednesday prior to releasing P2 million in credit line) and with the Development Bank of the Philippines, which is still looking at some collateral details.

"I don’t really intend to use these facilities. They are just there if I need them. I just tested how bankers view my sweet corn project and my venturing into organic corn in the future," he said.