Amcham backs GMA on biotech

The American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Amcham) recently said the adoption of agricultural biotechnology could help the country’s farming sector catch up with its Asian neighbors.

Amcham expressed its support for biotechnology even as it lauded President Arroyo’s declaration of poverty alleviation as one of the cornerstones of her government’s economic development agenda.

Amcham said the country "has vast agricultural resources that need the most appropriate policy framework in which to develop and achieve their potential."

The influential group made its move amid recent pronouncements by the Arroyo government adopting biotechnology as one of the anchors of its agricultural productivity, food security and sufficiency strategies. The government noted that Filipino farmers could no longer merely rely on the use of additional farm inputs to increase production, but will have to tap technology "to produce more food with less land."

Amcham said biotechnology "promises enormous gains for the economy in productivity and environmental sustainability." It noted, however, that in the Southeast Asian region, Thailand and Indonesia have gone ahead of the country in the use of this technology.

"Thailand and Indonesia are expected to begin commercial production of biotechnology crops in 2002," the group said. Meanwhile, the Philippines has only allowed one isolated field trial of a biotechnology-processed corn variety, it added.

Amcham said the technology has boosted agricultural production in various parts of the world, reducing crop losses, increasing yield and improving crop quality. Over 40 million hectares of farmland in the world are now planted to biotech crops.

With the application of this technology, Amcham said agriculture could play "an even more important role in Philippine economic development as well as a lead role in the (Southeast Asian) region."

The government’s policy on agricultural biotechnology also received widespread support from political, business and agricultural industry groups.

Among those who have backed President Arroyo’s support for agricultural biotechnology are the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Business Council of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, the Philippine Maize Federation Inc., and the Amcham.

Opposition senator and former Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara also backed the use of biotechnology to increase farm productivity and protect the environment.