Tacloban City (29 March) --- The government is set to distribute in Eastern Visayas 129 composting facilities worth around P45 million in a bid to strengthen the capacity of farmers to produce organic fertilizer.

The distribution of composting facilities nationwide was in line with the Tipid Abono (Save on Fertilizers) Program-Organic Fertilizer Production Project of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Leo Cañeda, DA regional executive director said.

The program has been promoting the use of organic fertilizer as a sustainable approach to food security, income generation and poverty alleviation, especially in poor regions like Eastern Visayas, he said.

Under the project, farmers would be able to cut their fertilizer input cost by about 30 percent and increase their rice yield per hectare, he said.

The program is being implemented in 48 provinces all throughout the country, covering a total area of 260,000 hectares.

Farmers' organizations or local government units involved in the project will receive composting facilities from the DA, said Armando Arcamo, regional coordinator of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management.

The project-beneficiaries include those in rice producing areas with an average yield below the national average of 3.8 metric tons per hectare, he said.

Arcamo said 96 towns in the six provinces of Eastern Visayas were set to receive the composting facilities -- 14 towns each in Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Southern Leyte; 26 towns in Leyte; 20 towns in Samar; and eight towns in Biliran.

Another 33 towns in the region would receive the composting facilities in 2010, bringing the total number of recipients in the region to 129 with a total proposed service area of 129,000 hectares, he said.

The composting facility is composed of a shredder, compost brewer, 15 kilos of African Night Crawler compost worms, and three units of vermi-bed.

The composting facility can produce 800 kilos of shredded materials per hour or 64,000 kilos per day at eight hours of operation, which would make it appropriate for a 100-hectare-cluster, he said.

Each program package, composed of the compost facility as well as training of farmers, among others, would cost around P350,000, Arcamo said.

The package would be given as a grant to beneficiaries, he said.

Arcamo said they would also upgrade the existing trichoderma production laboratory at the regional soils laboratory here and a non-operational Bio-N mixing plant in Capoocan, Leyte.

Trichoderma inoculants hasten the decomposition of farm waste, particularly rice straw, from three months to just one month.

Bio-N, on the other hand, is a microbial fertilizer that could replace from 30 percent to 50 percent the total nitrogen fertilizer of rice and other major crops.