RP still nobody in agriculture biotechnology race

Almost 40 million hectares have been planted to genetically modified or transgenic crops in 12 countries.

And in the Philippines? Still a big fat zero.

Nongovernment organizations, hoisting the potential but still unproven risks that GM crops might have in the country's agricultural ecosystems, continue to oppose even the testing of transgenic crop in experimental fields in the country.

They have aborted the testing of a Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn in Bay, Laguna. However, the Bt trials in General Santos City went on with the go-signal of the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP), notwithstanding the opposition of NGOs and the officials of General Santos City.

The field test was started last Dec. 15 by the University of the Philippines Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB) and Agroseed Philippines. The corn planted were harvested last March 18-19.

"Initial data gathered from the field test have already shown very encouraging results in terms of the resistance of the Bt corn variety against corn borer compared to the traditional corn variety," stated Dr. Manuel Logronio, Agroseed research director.

Reporting at a recent Senate hearing on the controversial issue presided over by Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, Dr. Logronio averred: "We are confident that final results will positively reflect the initial field findings."

First, definition of terms:

Biotechnology is "any technique that uses living organisms, or parts of organisms, to make or modify a product, to improve plants or animals, or to develop substances of specific uses."

It involves genetically modified plants, animals, or organisms that have been altered or engineered to express specific traits, like pest resistance, that do not occur naturally. They are called transgenic because the desired genes of one organism have bene transplanted to the cells of another organism.

Bacillus thuringiensis is a naturally occurring bacterium found mostly in soil. Through genetic engineering, a specific gene of Bt has been introduced into a corn variety. The additional gene enables the corn plant to produce protein in its tissues that can control the destructive corn borer, which is responsible for 20-30 percent of losses experienced by Filipino corn farmers every year.

The technology has been presented as an alternative to the excessive spraying of pesticides, which pose hazard to farmers' health and lives.

Encouragingly, no less that President Estrada has recently approved the institutionalism of a biotechnology program of the government.

Earlier, other government agencies and institution such as the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Science and Technology (DOST), Research and Development (R&D) agencies, and state colleges and universities have batted for a "full-speed ahead" policy on biotechnology.

As asserted by the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), "a moratorium on biotechnology R&D is not the answer to the problem. Such irrationality will only put us a more economic disadvantage in the long run because we would eventually rely on the products of biotechnology of other countries."

During the Senate hearing on the issue, for instance, it was pointed out that the Philippine continues to be left behind in the field of biotechnology.

Statistics presented at thru earning showed that the United States led the countries with the widest area planted to GM crops: 28.7 million ha as of 1999. This represents 72 percent of the global area devoted to transgenic crops.

The US was followed by Argentina, with 6.7 million ha. or equivalent to 17 percent of the global GM area. Canada had four million ha (10 percent); China, 300,000 ha (one percent); Australia and South Africa, 100,000 ha each.

The balance of less than one percent was grown in Mexico, Spain, France, Portugal, Romania, and Ukraine, each with less than 100,000 ha. Portugal, Rumania, and Ukraine grew transgenic crops for the first time in 1999.

The seven transgenic crops grown as of 1999 were (in descending order of area) soybean, corn/maize, canola/repesed, potato, squash, and papaya.

Transgenic soybean accounted for 54 percent of the global transgenic area. It was followed by corn, with 28 percent.

Cotton and canola shared third ranking position (nine percent). Potato, squash, and papaya occupied less than one percent of the global area of GM crops.

The latest to join the transgenic bandwagon was Japan. Notwithstanding consumer criticism, Japan approved new varieties of genetically modified crops as safe for human consumption. These are two varieties of rapeseed, cotton, sugar beet, and two varieties of corn.

The Japan Minister of Health and Welfare followed the recommendations of an 18-strong advisory committee on academics, consumer organizations, food standard agencies, and medical association. The new GM varieties met the Ministry's food safety guidelines.

Only five years old, the global transgenic crops industry has become a billion-dollar enterprise.

Records of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA) show that global sales from transgenic crops were projected to reach $2.1-2.3 billion in 1999.

This is about thirtyfold increase from the time such crops hit the global market in 1995. In their maiden year of commercialization, GM crops chalked up global sales estimated at $75 million.

In 1996, sales trippled at $235 million, soaring to $670 million in the following year, shooting further to $1.6 billion in 1998.

The global market for transgenic crops in projected to reach some $3 billion in Year 2000, $8 billion in 2005, and $25 billion in 2010. --