Philippine Standard Time
  1. You are here:  
  2. Home
  3. Quick Information Dispatch (QID) Articles
  4. NutrioTM improves growth and yield of sugarcane

NutrioTM improves growth and yield of sugarcane

NutrioTM, a new foliar spray biofertilizer inoculant contains endophytic bacteria (Enterobacter sacchari S18 ), a Nitrogen-fixing organism that have been isolated, screened and tested for improved growth and yield of sugarcane.

This product is one of the outputs of the research and development project funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD), based in Los Baños, Laguna.

 The project was prompted by the need to work on alternative or supplement source of nutrients for sugarcane plants to address the problem of increasing price of inorganic and imported fertilizers. The sugarcane’s recommended rate of inorganic fertilizer (RRF)  is 200 kilograms per hectare (kg/ha). NutrioTM can replace half of the RRF, thereby reducing cost of production inputs. 

The product is easy to use. A pack contains 100 grams of NutrioTM powder. A hectare of sugarcane  requires 4 kilograms or 40 packs of NutrioTM good for two applications. Twenty packs of NutrioTM is mixed well with 1,000 liters of water and sprayed onto the plants two months and five months after planting sugarcane. 

In a project report submitted to PCAARRD, the project leader Dr. Virginia M. Padilla indicated that the application of NutrioTM alone resulted in cane yield of 102.25 ton cane per hectare (TC/ha).  Similarly, the application of NutrioTM plus 100 kilograms of Nitrogen per hectare (1/2 RRF) produced 155.65 TC/ha. These yield values were higher compared with the national average of 60 TC/ha.These were the results of the efficacy trials conducted in Floridablanca, Pampanga.

Padilla of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (BIOTECH-UPLB) developed NutrioTM through the PCAARRD-funded project ‘Development and Field Testing of Endophytic Bacterial Inoculant (NutrioTM) as New Biofertilizer   Improved Production of Eggplant (Solanum melongena) and Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.).’ Plans to test the product in sugarcane farms in Regions III and VI are underway.

NutrioTM is a trade name already approved by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPhil). The product is for registration at the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA).