Lorenzo lauds UPLB-IPB research breakthroughs

Augusto Chavez of Cuenca, Batangas, hit it big when he ventured into the planting of "Sinta", the country’s first papaya hybrid.

It is the same papaya, bred by former Director Violeta Villegas of the UP Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB), that ushered Carlos Abes of General Tinio (Nueva Ecija) and Ato Belen of San Pablo City into the big time in Agribusiness. Abes, for one, now suppplies Metro Manila malls and supermarkkets with "Sinta" papaya.

Juan del Mundo of Los Baños, Laguna, also hit the jackpot when he started growing foundation seeds of recommended pole sitao varieties, which he now sells in addition to various vegetables.

Joselito Tibayan of Naic (Cavite) is now a successful grower of "Sta. Rita" bitter gourd (ampalaya), which earned him a nomination as Farmer of the Year in 2001.

Sonny Domingo of Zambales once landed on the pages of a magazine for raking in huge profits from new hybrid varieties of tomato named "Ara" and "Assunta".

What do Chavez, Abes, del Mundo, Tibayan, and Domingo have in common?

They are all adopters of agriculture technologies generated by UPLB-IPB, now considered the country’s premiere institute for crop variety improvement and seed production.

The institute celebrated its 28th anniversary last June 5, with Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. as keynote speaker.

During the affair, the DA official also turned over to UPLB, through Chancellor Wilfredo David, two research facilities rehabilitated and strengthened through the DA-Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and DA’s Grains Sector Development Program (GSDP).

Turned over were the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory (NPGRL) and IPB Biotechnology building.

Lorenzo said that IPB’s collection of 46,000 germplasm materials of about 500 species of non-rice crops at the NPGRL "is truly amazing."

He added: "I’m not surprized that IPB has been designated world base collection center of crops such as winged bean, snake gourd, bitter gourd, and wax gourd."

The institute, currently headed by Director Desiree Hautea, also holds the largest Asian collection of tomatoes. Moreover, it has a duplicate world collection of mungbean (mongo) and a Southeast Asia banana collection, including the largest "saba" collection.

Some 100 crop varieties developed by IPB have been approved by the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC, formerly Philippine Seed Board or PSB) and are now used by farmers nationwide under DA’s various crops production enhancement programs.

The IPB "Pag-asa" series of higher-yielding, pest-resistant mungbeans have improved production of the crop not only in the Philippines but also in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and South Korea.

Now the lead agency for crop biotechnology research in the country, IPB is genetically modifying papaya and mango to strengthen their resistance to diseases (ringspot virus for papaya) and delay their ripening during transit to export destinations.

It is also bioengineering sweet potato and banana to make them resistant to feathery mottle virus and the banana bunchy top virus, and coconut to increase its lauric acid content and medium chain triglycerides that lower blood cholesterol.

"These are solid achievemments and promising initiatives for agricultural development that we rarely see or hear in the media and should be more actively disseminated," Lorenzo said.

For its part, the government, particularly DA, is focusing its energies and resources on such commodities as rice, corn (integrated with livestock and poultry), coffee, sugar, fisheries, and coconut.

It has also prepared roadmaps for increasing the global competitiveness of "export winners" such as fresh banana, pineapple, shrimps and prawns, tuna, seaweeds, mango, and abaca.

"What makes us confident in these roadmaps and the initiatives we are pursuing are the targets and strategies we have formulated based on the total systems framework that we have used in private business and later in President Arroyo’s job creation program," Lorenzo averred.

He concluded: "Through this approach, we teach farmers, fisherfok, and small agribusinessmen scientifically proven ways of improving on every level of the supply chain, by analyzing every process from seed to shelf."