Bio-N.

This simply named microbial-based fertilizer is consistently becoming a by-word among farmers growing rice, corn, and vegetables such as tomato, eggplant, ampalaya, pechay, lettuce, okra, and pepper.

In Cebu alone, more than a thousand farmers are now using the technology, reported Dr. Mercedes Garcia, a Los Baños scientist who developed the award-winning technology under the research program of the UP Los Baños National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Biotech).

Biotech and the Technology Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC) have already teamed up for the commercialization of the technology. Others that provided support for the project were the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD) and the Marcos Foundation.

Lately, DA, through BAR, provided P10 million to promote Bio-N through technology transfer, seminar, and training activities. Twenty-six sites in 13 regions of the country have also been provided funds to underwrite technology transfer activities.

To date, Dr. Garcia reported at the May 18 technology forum, 16 DA-funded and two private mixing plants producing Bio-N have been set up in strategic places in the country.

Biotech said that Bio-N is a "breakthrough technology" that is mainly composed of microorganisms that can convert the nitrogen gas into available form to sustain the nitrogen requirement of host plants.

The active organisms (bacteria) were isolated from the roots of talahib (Saccharum spontaneum L.), a grass relative of sugarcane. These bacteria, once associated with roots of rice, corn, sugarcane, and some vegetable plants, can enhance root development, growth, and yield.

Dr. Garcia said Bio-N comes in powder form in a handy 200-gram packet, which is meant for either seed inoculation, directing broadcasting over seeds, or mixed with water as root dip.

Bio-N, she pointed out, enhances shoot growth and root development, improves yield of host plants, replaces 30-50 percent of the total amount of nitrogen requirement, makes plants resistant to drought and pests, reduces incidence of rice tungro and corn ear-worm attack, and increases yield and milling recovery of rice.