Agusan del Sur solon hits gov’t agricultural soil practices

PROSPERIDAD, AGUSAN DEL SUR — Agusan del Sur 2nd District Rep. Adolph Edward “Eddiebong” Plaza scored Monday morning the “systematic breakdown” of the government to improve agricultural productivity through proper laboratory-tested soil application methods.

In his keynote speech during the Capacity Building on Soil Health and Local Diagnostics attended by participants from different regions, Plaza claimed there was an institutional disconnect between national government offices and their rural counterparts.

READ: Agusan solon pushes science-based soil testing to cut farm costs

Article continues after this advertisement

Plaza cautioned that unless state agencies connect central bureaus to actual field offices, billions in agricultural spending will continue yielding dismal harvests.

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

He criticized the leadership of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) for “elevating politics over grassroots impact.”

“Once we get down to the municipal level, there is already a disconnect,” Plaza said. “Most of the employees of the municipal agricultural office do not have a soil science discipline in terms of agriculture. So what happens? Pagpasa ng regional soil science going down to the municipal level, hirap intindihin ‘yung mga agriculturist (when the regional data reaches the municipal level, the agriculturists struggle to understand it).”

READ: Agusan solon pushes national soil strategy through SUCs

Plaza also cited alleged severe procurement waste, asking delegates why several state-acquired mobile soil laboratories remain either “mothballed or still unboxed.”

Article continues after this advertisement

“Mayroon tayong laboratory, hindi naman nakikinabang ang farmer, tama? (We have a laboratory, but the farmer doesn’t benefit, right?) So hinahanap ko talaga ‘yung disconnect na ‘yon (I am hunting down that disconnect).”

Sought for comment, Engr. Ricardo Oñate Jr., DA-Caraga regional executive director, disputed allegations that the agency’s diagnostic assets are left unused.

Article continues after this advertisement

In a mobile phone interview, Oñate clarified that the regional office’s Mobile Soils Laboratory has been actively deployed on the ground this year, conducting 1,309 chemical analyses, 74 physical tests, and nine biological analyses of soil samples, alongside six diagnostic training sessions across Caraga.

Addressing the situation in Plaza’s home province, Oñate explained that DA-Caraga ceased deployments there because the Agusan del Sur provincial government had already built and operationalized its own high-end soils testing facility.

With local diagnostic infrastructure already well-established in the area, the regional office prioritized other localities lacking advanced diagnostic gear, Oñate said.

Agusan del Sur has established an Applied Research Department tasked with translating raw soil test results directly onto community farm parcels.

The model is already delivering measurable gains. On rain-fed test plots outside the provincial laboratory, applying tailored soil chemistry elevated rice yields from 3.6 metric tons to over 6 metric tons per hectare over four years.

To secure future technical capacity, the provincial government is underwriting 60 undergraduate agriculture scholarships at Agusan del Sur State University (ADSU)—prioritizing children of farmers and indigenous youth—alongside 10 master’s fellowships in soil science at Central Mindanao University.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

“A laboratory may produce technically correct results, but those results must be properly interpreted and translated into practical recommendations,” Plaza said. “Our farmers must be able to understand them, and ultimately, we must see whether they lead to better output in the field.” /jpv