5 GM crops seen ready for commercial production in 3 yrs

New technologies are boosting the country’s efforts to commercialize within the next three years the production of at least five genetically modified (GM) or biotech crops, including rice.

Dr. Emil Javier, president of the National Academy of Science and Technology, said agricultural scientists at the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, have made significant strides in pursuing the commercialization of these biotech crops.

"The adoption of biotechnology, especially for crops, will continue to grow because crop biotech works, there is not a single evidence of poisoning as advocated by those opposing it," said Javier.

Except for the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the International Rice Research Institute which are working to produce Golden Rice or vitamin-A enriched rice, the Bt rice which is resistant to various insects and the bacterial blight resistant rice, four other promising crops are in various stages of testing by the IPB: GM papaya, Bt eggplant, Bt mungbean and mosaic and bunchy top resistant abaca .

The IPB has submitted to the National Biosafety Committee of the Philippines (NBCP), its application for the field testing of a GM papaya that is ringspot virus resistant and the delayed ripening papaya that extends the shelf-life of the fruit.

Scientists as well as papaya producers are banking on GM papaya to improve local production and increase the country’s share in global papaya trade currently dominated by Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, India and Indonesia.

Papaya is a major fruit crop in the Philippines with 94 percent of production used for food and six percent for feed. Although less than four percent is exported, it has substantial economic value because of its varied food and industrial uses. The current export markets are Japan, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates and other Middle East nations.

It is grown all over the country mostly by small-scale producers. The two major commercial growers, Del Monte Philippines and Dole Philippines, account for less than five percent of the total production area.

Some of the preferred varieties are the solo variety which is popular in the foreign market, the Cavite and Morado specials, while a hybrid cultivar Sinta, the first Philippine-bred hybrid papaya developed by IPB, has found a growing niche in the local market with potential for international sales.

In recent years, demand for high-papain varieties like red solo has been increasing because of its growing use for beauty products.

While demand is up, production is constrained by several diseases and pests, the most widespread of which is the papaya ring spot virus. When this virus affects the plant at its seedling stage, the trees will not produce mature fruit. At a later stage, fruit production is reduced and is of poor quality because it also decreases sugar content.

In 1982, an outbreak of ring spot virus in the Philippines grew to epidemic proportions and wiped out the small-scale growers of Cavite. By 1994, the disease had spread through the entire Southern Tagalog area and reduced output by as much as 80 percent.

Aside from GM papaya, IPB is also working on Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) eggplant that would be resistant to insects such as whitefly. IPB scientists went to India to study the propagation and transfer of a Bt eggplant variety in India which will shortly be introduced in the country after securing a permit from BCP.

Its commercialization would boost farmers’ income owing to the increasing consumer demand with its average current production volume of 20,000 hectares annually, outstripping demand for other high-value crops. Eggplant production however requires the use of costly fertilizers and pesticides that result in higher production costs while posing health and environmental hazards.

Javier, who was once director of the IPB and president of the University of the Philippines, said the institute is also nearing the field testing of Bt mungbean and mosaic and bunchy top resistant abaca.

He noted that if and when the field testing of the mosaic and bunchy top resistant abaca prove to be successful, its commercial application should help revive the stagnant abaca industry in the Eastern Visayas and Bicol provinces which are one of the poorest regions in the country.

Javier said that once these crops greenhouse trials yield positive results, the next step would be to apply for its field trial and subsequently get the approval of independent agencies such as NBCP and later, the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Plant Industry.

"The Philippines should take full advantage of the benefits of biotechnology. This is crucial to the country’s efforts to improve self-sufficiency levels in food production. Other countries are continuing to rely on biotechnology and we should do the same," said Javier.