Carrageenan plant food supplement (PFS) recorded an average of 494% yield increase for mungbean varieties Labo, Pag-asa 7, and Pag-asa 19. The three varieties treated with carrageenan produced 1.2-1.5 tons per hectare (t/ha) compared with the control, which only produced 0.15-0.31 t/ha.
Carrageenan PFS is extracted from seaweeds and further degraded through irradiation. The carrageenan PFS, applied via foliar spray at a rate of 10 ml per liter of water, promoted plant growth, seed germination, shoot elongation, root growth, flower production, and suppression of heavy metals, among others.
Aside from the total yield, the number of pods per plant and the number of seeds per pod increased. A preliminary field trial in Pampanga State Agricultural University (PSAU) produced 12 to 15 pods per plant compared with the control, which only produced 6 to 7 pods per plant. The number of seeds per pod also doubled from 6 to 12 seeds.
Another preliminary field experiment in PSAU under rice-mungbean and vegetable-mungbean cropping systems using different fertilizer treatments showed that mungbean plants applied with carrageenan PFS posted the highest seed yield at 1.8 t/ha. Plants treated with carrageenan also produced the highest number of pods per plant (20) and number of seeds per pod (12). Other fertilizers tested included organic fertilizer, ammonium sulfate, ammonium sulfate+, triple superphosphate (TSP) + muriate of potash, and combination of ammonium sulfate + boron.
Carrageenan PFS is developed through the funding of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) and implemented by the DOST-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOST-PNRI), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), and the National Crop Protection Center of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB-NCPC).