By Rene Acosta
Philippines TODAY via SEARCA BIC

The government is now developing a special variety of high-yielding rice that would not be susceptible to microorganisms, insects and parasites that commonly afflict local crops. 

The Department of Agriculture-Biotechnology Advisory Team (DA-BAT) said local scientists are now extensively researching on a genetically modified variety of rice, which may be called "Vitamin A" and which may be launched in three years. 

"We are looking at the variety; it may be the Vitamin A rice," said Dr. Saturnina Halos, chairman of the DA-BAT. 

Halos and other officials including Science and Technology Secretary Estrella F. Alabastro talked last weekend about the genetic modification technology, or biotechnology, and its safe use by humans. 

The officials said the ongoing research on the genetically modified rice follows the successful launching and cultivation of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn, which is now extensively cultivated in South Cotabato and is giving farmers higher harvests. 

Benigno Peczon, president of the Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines, and who is also a member of the government's advisory board said the Bt corn is yielding a higher harvest by 80 percent compared with the traditional corn varieties. 

The higher yields are explained by the resistance of Bt corn to crop diseases and pests like the Asiatic corn borer, which attacks ordinary corn types. 

In Isabela province alone, he said farmers found that Bt corn yields a harvest of six to 10 tons per hectare compared with the two to three tons of the ordinary corn variety. 

Peczon said the Vitamin A rice, which is being developed by Filipino scientists at the Philippine Rice Research Institute in Munoz City, Nueva Ecija, can prevent blindness. 

Besides Bt rice, Director Alice Ilaga of the DA Biotech Program Implementation Unit said scientists are also researching on genetically modified crops including sweet potato, soybean, eggplant and even cotton, which the country may also produce in three years. 

Dispelling fears about the hazards of GMO (genetically modified) products, especially food, she said Filipinos might not be aware that there are already about 2,000 GMO products being sold in the market. 

"We think that they are not there, but they are there," she said. 

Alabastro said that even the famous abaca from Bicol may benefit from the biotechnology process. She pointed out that the country used to have 10,000 hectares of abaca farms but that it now has only 3,000 hectares because of the incurable disease that hit the farmlands and nearly killed the industry. 

Halos said the country's research and use of the biotechnology process is governed by strict rules and provisions formulated by a regulatory body under the agriculture department. The regulatory body, composed of scientists and individuals from private groups, is now a model in Southeast Asia for biotech monitoring. 

Peczon said the genetic modification technology has long been used in Europe and that countries like Spain and Germany sell products produced under this process. 

He said even Patrick Moore, former president and founder of environmental group Greenpeace, has acknowledged the safe use and benefits of biotechnology. 

Peczon said Moore has called Greenpeace, which is in the forefront of the move to ban GMO products, as "bio-terrorist."