Filipino scientists developed this biofertilizer. The problem was scaling it.

When Filipino scientists started the development of a biofertilizer at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), they meant to improve Filipino farmers’ livelihood.

In 1985, Dr. Mercedes Umali-Garcia (now deceased) started research that would eventually lead to the creation of Bio-N, a microbial-based fertilizer that enhances the nitrogen intake of plants. Bio-N is considered the pioneering biofertilizer product of the university.

Biofertilizers act as complementary to the urea-based fertilizers. They help keep soil healthy. More importantly, they could be cheaper, if not as widely accessible.

The ideal path was for the product to come from local research laboratories down to smallholder farmers, facilitated and funded by the government. This was what happened in 2004 when the Department of Agriculture (DA) funded 83 mixing plants to scale production of UPLB’s Bio-N. But various problems arose that affected production. Bio-N got funding from the DA the same year that the fertilizer fund scam broke.

“At the time, there were many issues because of the fertilizer scam. We were affected. We went through many issues,” Julieta Anarna, researcher from UPLB’s Biotech and the project leader who took over Dr. Garcia, said in Filipino.

The fertilizer fund scam implicated Department of Agriculture officials who allegedly diverted fertilizer funds to former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 2004 election campaign. (READ: Ombudsman clears Arroyo in P728-M fertilizer scam)

Anarna said production was affected. When prices of fertilizers rose, they tried to revive the mixing plants. The DA-funded initiative involved 83 mixing plants across the country that produced Bio-N. But government-funded biofertilizer production faltered eventually. By 2022, only 20% of the mixing plants were operational. Quality suffered. There were product inconsistencies and irregularities in operations and project support.

As project leader, Anarna helped in raising awareness of the benefits of biofertilizers. She said the technology is widely accepted among Filipino farmers. In 2025, Anarna received the 2025 Gregorio Y. Zara Outstanding Technology Commercialization Award, considered a premier prize in the field.

When the government stopped the project, UPLB awarded in 2023 the exclusive rights to commercially produce Bio-N to a private firm, Agri Specialist Inc. or ASI.

Despite the situation, Anarna always draws back to the end user of the product.

“It was developed for the farmers, Filipino farmers, to help our farmers boost their yield for rice and corn,” Anarna reiterated.

Scaling the cheaper alternative

Use of biofertilizer is a main alternative option during times of crises, when cost of imported urea fertilizers rise. Increase in prices happened when the Russian-Ukraine crisis started. It is happening again as the conflict between the United States and Iran unfolds.

In March, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. and Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan visited their factory to advocate for the use of biofertilizers as the Middle East conflict pushed up prices of synthetic fertilizers.

The Philippines spends hundreds of millions of dollars to import inorganic fertilizers every year. From 2021 to 2024, the Philippines’ average inorganic fertilizer importation is at 2.4 million metric tons according to the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA).

Biotech recommends the use of five packets per hectare in a rice field, six packets per hectare for corn, and 20 packets per hectare for vegetables. A kilo (five to six packets) of Bio-N can replace two 50-kilo bags of urea fertilizer. Trials and farmers’ experiences suggest as well that crop yields increase by 11% when using Bio-N.

In 2023, the UPLB entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with ASI. Agribusiness owner Mario Labadan Jr., a UPLB alumnus, leads the company.

“The main shift was from fragmented, decentralized production to industrial-scale manufacturing under standardized processes,” UPLB Biotech told Rappler in an email.

The university said the agreement gives ASI the right to distribute and market Bio-N while UPLB retains the technology. This reflects in the daily production operations of ASI in their plant in Laguna, south of Metro Manila.

Struggle of commercializing products

This shift highlights the struggle of commercializing innovative agricultural products made by state universities and research laboratories. The government attempted to subsidize production for two decades and faltered. Now a single private company has exclusive rights to streamline production.

ASI’s attainment of exclusive rights received criticism from agricultural organization Federation of Free Farmers (FFF). The group claimed that small farmers and organizations lose the opportunity to make their own biofertilizer using the Bio-N technology, and would have to buy from the company.

“Bio-fertilizer technology was meant to liberate Filipino agriculture from import dependence – not replace it with a domestic monopoly,” Leonardo Montemayor of FFF wrote in a piece earlier published in Rappler.

But UPLB clarified that licensing to a private company was one of the paths available to them to commercialize technology.

“UPLB did not seek a licensing agreement with a specific company,” the university said in their email to Rappler. “Several groups submitted their letters of intent signifying their interest to license Bio-N. UPLB knows the different pathways of technology transfer, one of which is through licensing.”

Making BIO-N in this decade

ASI’s Labadan said they are reaching 10% of the seven million hectares grown for rice and corn. Previously, the product reached less than 1% of rice and corn fields.

Labadan said the setup before was not sustainable. “If there is no support from the government, there is no biofertilizer,” he said in Filipino.

ASI invested P300 million to scale production. At UPLB, the bacteria carrier used was charcoal. At ASI, they use clay. Labadan said they had to innovate Bio-N to make large-scale production possible.

They have been using soil as a carrier medium for the bacteria. The mother culture comes from Biotech. Scaled production is made possible by investing in large-scale bioreactors. Every day, ASI produces 70,000 packets of Bio-N. Three percent of royalties go to the university, said Labadan.

When Rappler visited in April and toured the facility, we met Arnesto Diño, president of the Regional Federation of Irrigators Association from Calabarzon. They were loading sacks of Bio-N on trucks they borrowed from the National Irrigation Authority.

Diño said they were getting 575 sacks, which would be distributed to five provinces in the region. He said it was their first time to procure Bio-N supply from the factory.

Labadan denies the allegation of monopoly. He said there are other local producers of biofertilizers, albeit with a different formula. Labadan claimed that previously there were two companies that obtained licenses to produce Bio-N. UPLB did not corroborate this information.

There are currently at least 61 registered biofertilizer products, according to the FPA’s database as of May 15.

A legacy of UPLB

UPLB’s role now is making sure that the Bio-N produced at ASI is faithful to the science, and conducting regular visits to the site.

Before the government funded mixing plants for Bio-N production, the university had been promoting its use among farmers. National scientist Romulo Davide promoted Bio-N when he trained farmers under the Farmer-Scientists Training Program.

Davide, professor emeritus at UPLB, trained farmers to experiment with different fertilizer treatments to see which combination leads to the most yield. He believed this empowered farmers to be scientific in trying different methods, giving them a “sense of inquiry and ownership.”

“Using the technologies they found appropriate for their farms, the farmer-scientists are now producing 4-6 tons of corn per hectare compared to 0.5-1.5 tons/ba before the training,” Davide observed and wrote in a 2001 journal article.

“They now use high-yielding varieties, organic fertilizer like chicken manure with Bio-N microbial fertilizer followed by urea 25-30 days after planting, and detasseling their corn plant 40-45 days later to control corn borers,” Davide observed and wrote in a 2001 journal article.

More than two decades later following these experiments and subsequent government funding, Bio-N is now scaled by a private company. UPLB says the shift is an “opportunity to position Bio-N in the global market.”

Labadan himself said that it is in the company’s future plans to open up another plant or export the product. “But of course you have to first support the Philippines for national security.” – with reports from Eirene Manatlao/Rappler.com