Thursday, August 11, 2011

Developed by genetic engineering, genetically modified or GM crops may not be ordinary, but it is no longer unfamiliar in global and local farming.

"GM crops are grown practically everywhere and used in very many food

products," Dr. Randy Hautea of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) told Malaya Business Insight. "Labeling a product as GM-based or otherwise is not required in many countries, including the Philippines."

In 2010, he said, GM crops were grown in 148 million hectares in 29 countries, an increase equivalent to 14 million hectares, or 10 percent over 2009.

Take the case of Bt corn, which has been inserted with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene to make it resistant to the corn borer, the crop’s major insect pest.

Other Bt varieties developed are resistant to the corn rootworm, another important pest, or other biotech crops such as corn and soybean which are tolerant to the spraying of herbicides that control weeds.

The Bt bacterium, common in soil, was found in 1901 to have insecticidal properties. Through modern biotechnology in the 1990s, the Bt gene has been inserted to corn which makes it inherently resistant to the insect pest.

Because of the toxicity to specific insects, Bt crops reduce if not eliminate the use of pesticides that are highly poisonous – to humans, animals and the environment. Pesticides are also expensive and major inputs in farm production.

According to Dr. Emil Javier, President of the National Academy of Science and Technology, more beneficial insects thrive in Bt corn farms in Northern Luzon that in farms planted with conventional hybrid ones.

Because of the GM traits, Bt corn - first approved for cultivation in the United States in 1996 - is now grown and consumed in Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Honduras, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Uruguay and the US.

It was approved in the Philippines in 2002 and propagated the next year. Today, according to ISAAA, in 2010 an estimated number of 270,000 small corn farmers planted biotech corn on a projected 541,000 hectares, almost half of the 1.16 million hectares planted to yellow corn nationwide.

The Philippines is the first Asian country to grow a major biotechnology crop - Bt corn - for food, feed and processing.

Crops with the Bt traits now available to farmers worldwide are corn, cotton, potato and rice. Biosafety clearance had been given to Bt rice in China; it will soon cultivate the crop for a good reason - 75 percent of its rice crop is affected by the rice borer.

In Asia and Australia, GM crops that have been given environmental, food and feed approval are alfalfa, Argentine canola, carnation, corn, cotton, papaya, petunia, poplar, potato, rice, rose, soybean, sugar beet, sweet pepper and tomato.

Although not necessarily in commercial production now, some GM crops have been approved for cultivation or for direct use in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines.

The use of GM crops vary, mainly because of public fears and strict biosafety regulations.

India, for example, has long planted Bt cotton but the commercial planting of Bt eggplant was suspended last year. Indonesia has field tested Bt cotton before but it was not commercially propagated.

Malaysia has approved only soybean but has not okayed its commercial production. South Korea has approved Argentine canola, corn, cotton, potato, soybean and sugar beet - but not their commercial cultivation. Taiwan and Thailand have okayed, but not for cultivation, corn and soy bean. The same is true for corn, cotton and sugar beet in Singapore.

The Philippines has approved at least 61 GM crops and products for importation and for direct use as food, feed and for processing, including soybean, cotton, sugarbeet, corn and potato.

Bt corn, herbicide tolerant corn and stacked trait corn (Bt and herbicide tolerant) are allowed for cultivation. Bt eggplant is being tested around the country under multi-location field trials.

Because the Bt eggplant is resistant to the fruit and shoot borer, it eliminates the use of pesticides which could ruin up to 100 percent of production, according to Dr. Serge Francisco, Chief Science Research Specialist at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).

To prevent infestation of conventional eggplant, farmers apply excessive use of pesticides, about 42 times per production and even as much as 80 sprays every other day, he says.

Francisco estimates pesticides against the fruit and shoot borer cost P28,000 per hectare per cropping season, or 30 percent of production costs.

According to scientists at Philrice and the Institute of Plant Breeding, University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), the Bt eggplant could increase production by 40 percent, raise farmers’ income by about P50,000 per hectare and lessen production costs by 16 percent – mostly because Bt eggplant could cut pesticides use by half (as well as lower the health and environmental risk of pesticides use).

The Bt eggplant was developed in India by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co. Through the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSPII), UPLB acquired the technology royalty-free. Meaning, Maharashtra doesn’t earn from Bt eggplant propagation here; UPLB will sell Bt eggplant seds at cost.

Sentiments

Anti-GM sentiments are keeping pace, although way behind government regulators.

Early this year, Greenpeace activists broke into a trial site at the UPLB Institute of Plant Breeding and uprooted Bt eggplants. The UPLB has brought charges against Greenpeace; it decried the breach in academic freedom, citing Bt eggplant is under evaluation for safety and performance

In Australia, Greenpeace activists in early July allegedly destroyed a trial plot of GM wheat and barley plants at the Canberra headquarters of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

Police has since raided the Sydney headquarters of Greenpeace in relation to the "alleged trespass and property damage"; researchers said months of research would have to restart.

India in 2010 suspended the commercialization of the Bt eggplant over environmental concerns. This, despite the fact that India is the fourth biggest producer of a GM crop - Bt cotton, which has transformed the country from an importer to an exporter of the crop.

From 2002 to 2009, Indian farms planted to Bt cotton hybrids increased from 50,000 to 8.4 million hectares, a 168-fold increase in just eight years, occupying 87 percent of 9.6 million hectares of cotton in 2009.

Copyright 2011 - Business Insight Malaya Inc.