THE Philippines is the first and only country in Asia to grow a major gene-modified or biotech crop for food, feed, and processing: Bt corn MON 810 approved for commercialization in 2002.
It is also the first country in Southeast Asia to implement a regulatory system for gene-modified crops which started in 1990.
Next to rice, corn is the second most important crop in the Philippines with yellow corn accounting for 70 percent of livestock mixed feeds.
Domestic demand cannot be met due to the extensive damage by the Asian corn borer.
The introduction of Bt corn MON 810 in 2002 was to answer this problem.
Bt corn has a gene from a naturally-occurring soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) var. kurstaki.
This gene codes for a delta-endotoxin, which when eaten by a specific target insect such as the Asian corn borer disrupts the insect’s digestive system by developing lethal holes on the insect’s mid-gut.
Biotech crops are considered to be one of the fastest crop technology adopted in the country.
Upon the initial approval for the commercial propagation of Bt corn MON 810 in 2002, some 10,000 hectares were planted with the crop the next year.
Adoption of biotech corn tremendously increased through time as new traits were approved and introduced in the market.
In particular, the herbicide tolerant-corn (Roundup Ready) and stacked trait corn (Bt and RR) were both propagated in 2005.
By then, the Philippines had already planted Bt corn for almost three years over several seasons.
Filipino farmers prefer stacked trait corn, which is both pest resistant and herbicide tolerant and commonly called biotech corn. The total area of biotech corn in the country is dominated by stacked trait corn, with a total area of 411,000 hectares.
According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), the area planted to biotech corn in the Philippines increased to 541,000 hectares in 2010, up by 10 percent from 490,000 hectares in 2009.
The number of small resource-poor farmers, growing on average 2 hectares of biotech corn, was 270,000, up significantly by 20,000 from 250,000 in 2009.
By 2004, more than 50,000 hectares were planted to Bt corn - out of 2.7 million hectares of corn grown nationwide. By 2010, Bt corn was grown in 541,000 hectares.
Biotech yellow corn has consistently increased by about 5 perecent of the total yellow corn hectarage every single year from the first year of commercialization in 2003, reaching the highest ever level of 42 percent in 2010.
The ISAAA estimates that the farm level economic benefit of planting biotech corn in the Philippines from 2003 to 2009 reached $108 million; the net national impact of biotech corn on farm income was estimated at $35 million.
The area planted to biotech corn, the only currently approved biotech crop for propagation in the country, increased over a quarter million hectares in 2010, according to ISAAA Chairman Clive James.
