Farmers earn more with seaweed-based fertilizer

Twelve years of intensive research is paying off for Cebu-based agricultural scientist Epedito P. Dublin, the country’s first developer and exporter of a seaweed-based organic fertilizer.

In 2004, FreeGrow, the flagship product of Dublin Bio-Industries manufactured in Daanbantayan, north of Cebu, passed the rigid Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS) for organic agricultural products.

"That was a very, very positive development for my company and this is for me a resounding validation of all the years spent coming up with a product that is acceptable in the global market," said Dublin.

Dublin said JAS representatives inspected and evaluated his manufacturing practices last year to ensure that they comply, with all the requirements for a company to be given a JAS seal certifying that the finished product is 100-percent free of chemicals.

JAS is an independent agency commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan to accredit certifiers and enforce organic labeling laws. The Japanese government and US have established an equivalency arrangement for the trade in products labeled organic with a few specific exceptions. However, some buyers still insist on full JAS compliance rather than accept equivalence.

With the JAS seal, Dublin expects FreeGrow exports to substantially increase this year. In 2004, FreeGrow products to Japan reached about 2,500 liters and this year, an initial order for 8,000 liters was already signed between Dublin Bio-Industries and a Japanese organic fertilizer distributor.

Dublin began developing FreeGrow in 1992 after he lost a seaweed farm in Palawan due to strong typhoons. Through countless series of trial and error methods, he was finally able to come up with a system of extraction and fermentation of the nutrient contents of Sargussum polycystum, Eucheuma soinossum and Eucheuma cottonii seaweeds, and converting these into a highly-potent organic fertilizer.

His invention won for him the "Outstanding Agricultural Scientist" award in the provincial and regional levels by the Department of Agriculture in 1993 and the "Outstanding Filipino Product for Region 7" in 1994.

"My product is the first organic fertilizer from seaweed, the others are also claiming that theirs is extracted from seaweeds, but most of them are incorporated with chemicals. When I say we are 100 percent organic, it is a claim that I can support because even the water we use is not chlorinated," said Dublin.

During the initial years of Dublin’s research, FreeGrow was used on fruits and vegetables such as eggplant and sweet pepper at the Mandaue Experiment Station in Cebu, but later, he concentrated on rice this being the country’s major staple.

The use of FreeGrow in rice production could cut farmer’s costs significantly. Farmers using chemical fertilizers would require an average of P25,000 per hectare, excluding the cost of herbicides, pesticides and insecticides and labor.

In contrast, farmers using FreeGrow, trimmed their fertilizer expenses to just P7,200 per hectare. Farmers’ save not only on fertilizer cost, but also on labor because there is no longer a need to hire additional people to spray harmful herbicides and insecticides.

One farmer, Arsenia Baro of Barangay Kabangkalan, Sevilla, Bohol, has been using FreeGrow for her rice farm since 1999 and has posted an average yield increase of two metric tons per hectare for each cropping season.

Daisy de Leon, a pineapple farmer in Laniton Bagud, Camarines Norte admitted to being at first skeptical even after a thorough explanation by a technician from Harveson Inc., the exclusive distributor of FreeGrow in Luzon.

"To see is to believe, so a sample was sprayed on five-month old pineapple at three consecutive sprayings and a 10-day interval. The results were amazing. My plants obtained rapid growth and vigorous development, with very waxy leaves. FreeGrow was again applied at fruiting stage once a month. We had fruits that matured earlier, with bigger size and eyes, super sweet and tasty, while the unsprayed plants showed delayed growth, slender fruits with smaller eyes," noted de Leon.

There are many advantages in using FreeGrow, which is biodegradable.The benefits to plants and crops include promotion of seed germination and increasing root growth, increasing nutrient and improving plant’s stress resistance, while its naturally-occurring antibiotics, increase resistance to pathogenic attacks from fungi and pests.

It is also friendly to the environment because it is biodegradable and does not contaminate water table. FreeGrow also contains polysaccharide that restores the nitrogen in the soil, thus, accelerating soil fertility and improving soil quality.

Dublin said his product aides in the rapid decomposition process of organic materials while restoring the population of useful microorganisms in the soil. Moreover, it can be added to animal feeds that reduces stench or ammonia level of animal wastes.

It took awhile for FreeGrow to be accepted in the local market, but it has been exported to various countries such as Japan, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, South Africa, Spain, The Netherlands, Hongkong and Singapore.