RP seeks $1-M grant from USAID

The government will be seeking a minimum grant of $1 million or about P53 million from the United States Agency for Development (USAID) to fund field trials next year of two high-value bio-engineered crops.

"We will be proposing a five-year extension of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSP II) when it expires in 2007 so that we could go into the next phase, which is testing the ringspot virus resistant papaya (RVSP) in actual areas where it is grown in Luzon and where there is infestation. We will also put to test the shoot borer resistant eggplant or Bt eggplant in six major eggplant-producing areas," said Dr. Desiree M. Hautea, professor of the Institute of Plant Breeding, University of the Philippines in Los Banos and head of the ABSP II in the Philippines.

"We need the additional funding to carry out the ongoing R & D phase of the program as well as see through their commercial propagation which we expect to accomplish by 2008," added Hautea.

She said IPB will be seeking the approval next year of its application to start the bulk-up phase or commercial production of Bt eggplant and RVRP seeds with the Bureau of Plant Industry.

"The regulatory file for the Bt eggplant and RSVP will definitely be completed next year and after that we expect to also get the BPI approval for commercialization. By end 2008, farmers can already buy the seeds," noted Hautea.

The ongoing ABSP II-Southeast Asia is currently funded by the USAID and Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The IPB is the Southeast Asian regional coordination center for the project, overseeing activities in the Philippines and Indonesia.

The project targets the safe and effective development and commercialization of bio-engineered crops which while critical to subsistence and resource-poor farmers, are often overlooked by the private sector.