Philippines - Dr. Danilo C. Cardenas, PCARRD, Manila.

Organic movement has taken roots in the Philippines and many biopesticides, either microbial or ethanobotanical, are available. Rapid composting through Trichoderma based technology provides the added advantage of compost-fungus activator in the form of its biopesticidal property, such as against the club root disease of cabbage. Bio-N, a biofertilizer, produced by Biotech Company has two species of nitrogen fixing bacteria, one for rice and the other for corn. Besides promoting root and shoot growth, it is also known to induce resistance to drought and insect pests. There are 64 plants making Bio-N in the country. Government has adopted a number of strategies to promote the use of bioagents, and farmers are encouraged to produce own organic fertilizers and adopt IPM. National extension programs using farmer-scientist education and communication, and information communication technology are being adopted. However, mass production of bioagents is still at a small scale; quality control and improvement are in infancy and IPR issues are a concern since microbes are easily cultured and pirated.