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By
Dr. Eufemio T.
Rasco Jr.
THE country has
been committed to promote modern biotechnology for the
benefit of its 90 million or so citizens for the last
decade or so and it has been slowly but surely working to
redeem that vow and make the Philippines a major player in
biotech research and development.
For the record, the
Arroyo administration has decreed the annual biotechnology
week to be celebrated every November and it has set into
motion the strict biosafety standards and various
protocols covering the development of agricultural
biotechnology products. Moreover, the Department of
Agriculture
(DA) pushed the
development of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn and
herbicide resistant corn expanded production areas from a
measly 100 hectares in 2003 to 400,000 hectares last year.
No such genetically
modified (GM) crop has enjoyed as much acceptance as Bt
corn and does not much require much of herbicides or
insecticides. These developments augur well for
agricultural biotechnology, which is considered by no less
than Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap as a boon to
farmers and other indirect workers since it would increase
their incomes and provide the livestock industry with
alternatives to imported feeds.
The strict
standards set by National Committee on Biosafety has made
it possible for Filipino scientists to know precisely how
they would go about the business of improving the quality
and genetic make-up of various crops without any
considerable risks to humans and the environment.
Modern
biotechnology covers the processes involved in developing
better quality crops and animals, more durable
agricultural commodities and improved output. These
developments are a great leap from traditional
biotechnology, which covers fermentation that led to the
production of wine more than 6,000 years ago.
Microorganisms were the first biotechnology workhorses.
Traditional
biotechnology is still being applied universally, from
food production to processing, biomedical products like
medicines and vaccines and in industry, where cleaning
agents are in demand.
Successes in
laboratory work and theoretical scientific ventures have
made it possible to open new avenues for biotechnology,
ranging from gene splicing or genetic engineering, the use
of protoplast fusion, the application of DNA markers in
establishing paternity, solving crimes, diagnosing
diseases, plant breeding, studying evolution and the
application of high-technology means as organ and tissue
culture.
On the whole, the
country is still most comfortable with traditional
biotechnology, with their applications seen day-to-day and
modern biotechnology still limited to the development of
cash crops like corn, cotton, soybeans and canola.
Similarly,
biotechnology applications in the biomedical field only
cover 25 percent of the total value of medicines.
Currently, the Philippines is also trying to work
assiduously in bioenergy, with government itself engaged
in promoting the development of biofuel feedstock from
corn, sugarcane, coconut, jatropha, sorghum, cassava and
others.
The law that
required rising ethanol content in petroleum products was
a good development for the biofuel market as it showed the
country is serious in reducing the use of fossil fuels
that are being depleted at an alarming rate.
In the next three
years, a number of GM crops and fruits are being lined up
for commercial release, with the papaya ringspot
virus-resistant GM papaya as the first to be propagated.
Apart from papaya,
which has enormous possibilities for the natural
ingredients market, work is being undertaken for abaca,
cotton and others.
GM papaya will have
a longer shelf life even as genetic research is being
undertaken to develop a strain that would resist diseases
that normally decimate nearly half of the papaya grown in
larger farms.
The private sector
is also doing some work on biotechnology, particularly on
multiple stacked genes in corn.
As far as the
University of the Philippines-Mindanao (UPMin) is
concerned, our work is concentrated on the
micropropagation of neglected crops like sago and
pitcher plant, the production of biofertilizer from
rhizobacteria found in sago, and DNA markers for
the Philippine eagle, banana and durian, as well as the
industrial processing of sago to produce starch and
alcohol.
UPMin has also been
involved in testing GM corn since 2003, when its
propagation in the country was approved. The university is
working on developing new biotechnological process using
neglected materials in bid to generate knowledge and
deepen our understanding and practice of genetic
engineering.
Nepenthes holds
promise not only as an ornamental but as a unique
“plant-animal hybrid” that can be a potential as a
platform for genetic engineering. It is an endangered
species endemic to the Philippines.
Thus far, UPMin has
made headway in seed propagation, hydropriming and
understanding the biology of flowering and seed
cultivation, in vitro cutting propagation, plant growing
media, acclimatization, and the selling of in vitro
seedlings and clones.
In the near future,
UPMin believes it can develop the industrial scale
propagation and use of the pitcher plant and sago,
then later on nipa and Caryota. Work is still at the
exploratory stage with funding commitment from the
Commission on Higher Education even as full-blown research
is starting this year.
The university is
involved in tissue culture as even as it continues to
breed Nepenthes and supplies commercial nursery operators.
These nurseries, in turn, provide end users with
nepenthes. Elsewhere in the country, biotechnologists from
UP and other universities have been undertaking work on
deriving biofuels from aquatic resources, while others
have started finding cosmetic applications from marine
products, with some scientists actually producing some
items for sale in the market.
Rice straws and
other organic materials like wood are also being analyzed
to determine if they can be viable sources of biofuel and
initial results are encouraging. Originally undertaken in
the US, work on this field is being done here.
It is not really
far-fetched to think that anything green can produce fuel
and the earlier we plunge into serious work in this
regard, the better chances we have to craft a feasible and
viable renewable energy sources.
Many of our
colleagues also pay attention to current concerns about
the role of agricultural biotechnology products in
enhancing environmental integrity, reducing global warming
and reversing climate change in the long haul.
Dr. Saturnina C.
Halos has dwelled on the positive impact of biotechnology
in this direction. She is the chairperson of the
Department of Agriculture-Biotechnology Advisory Team
(DA-BAT).
Dr. Calixto M.
Protacio of the Crop Science Cluster of the University of
the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) has written about the
possibility of increasing the lauric acid content of
coconuts following the development of GM canola using a
gene from the California bay tree and another gene from
coconut to increase such content in rapeseed. Due to this
breakthrough, rapeseed produces 60 percent lauric acid
from zero, posing a threat to coconut oil that is firmly
in control of 2 percent to 3 percent of the oil and fatty
acids market. By increasing the lauric acid content of
coconut oil, it is expected to make a rebound and regain
its market share.
Halos says GM crops
offer a positive contribution to environmental defense,
and quoting reports from the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA), adds:
“Reducing pesticide use is simplified with farmers
planting purposely designed GM crops. Bt crops, for
example, were purposely developed to avoid the application
of too much insecticides whereas herbicide-tolerant crops
to avoid the use of a cocktail of chemical herbicides. The
success of this option is borne by the recent finding that
use of pesticides has been reduced by 286 million kilos in
the 10 years (1996-2006) that GM crops have been planted
with a 15.4 percent reduction in the environmental impact
associated with insecticide and herbicide use. Over half
of the environmental benefits associated with lower
insecticide and herbicide use has been in developing
countries (52 percent). A corresponding decrease in carbon
emission reduction has been found.
GM crops contribute
to a reduction in fuel use due to less-frequent herbicide
or insecticide applications and a reduction in the energy
use in soil cultivation. Reduced soil cultivation is
associated with herbicide tolerant crops.”
ISAAA also reported
that three years ago, the permanent carbon dioxide savings
from reduced fuel use associated with GM crops was 1.2
billion kilos globally. It is like removing 540,000 cars
from the road for a year, she adds.
We look forward to
seeing the steady advance of biotechnology research and
development (R&D) as the country strives to increase
agricultural output and raise the incomes of farmers.
In the end,
whatever we do to boost our biotechnological progress
should redound to better lives for millions of our fellow
citizens. By achieving this, we shall have given the
nation a big bonus. |
