More farmers switching to biotech crops

The production of geneti-cally modified corn or Bt corn will expand to 50,000 hectares this year as more farmers switch to planting biotech crops, the Interna-tional Service of the Acquisi-tion of Agri-Biotech Applica-tions (ISAAA) said.

ISAAA, a nonprofit orga-nization engaged in agricul-tural biotechnology research, said local farmers are begin-ning to realize the benefits of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn and expects farmers to widely plant the crop.

"This year, corn farmers, including companies like multinationals Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-bred will continue to plant and even increase their hectarage devoted to BT corn," said ISAA global coordinator Randy A. Hautea.

He said that despite the initial resistance, farmers are now beginning to appreciate Bt corn because of its resis-tance to the Asian corn borer and its yield is much higher than the traditional corn variety.

The Asian corn borer is a kind of pest that cause consi-derable damage to corn crops particularly in Minda-nao and the Cagayan Valley based on research conducted by ISAAA.

The research shows that the yield of Bt corn is 41 percent higher than that of the traditional corn variety. Cost of production is 24 per-cent lower with Bt corn.

Hautea said these benefits have convinced farmers to switch to Bt corn. Currently, he said, there are about 20,000 hectares of farm areas already planted to the crop.

About 100 hectares of farm areas were planted with Bt corn as early as January, right after the Department of Agriculture (DA) approved the commercialization of the crop in December 2002.

Its commercialization, however, was opposed by environmental groups which warned of Bt corn’s ill effects to human health and the environment.

The DA on the other hand, is encouraging the planting of Bt corn to address the shortfall that perennially hits the country, especially last year when key corn-producing regions were ravaged by supertyphoons.

Many countries are already adopting GM crops. According to Clive James, chairman of the ISAAA board of directors, the global area of transgenic crops continued to grow for the seventh consecutive year at a sustained double-digit growth rate of 15 percent compared with 12 percent in 2002. – Rocel Felix