DA execs endorse biotechnology to help
ensure food security in attaining the MDG

APPLICATIONS in modern biotechnology in agriculture will help ensure food security and enable the country to meet its commitments under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agriculture experts told local executives in Davao City on Friday.

Director Alice Ilaga of the DA-Biotechnology Program Implementation Unit (BPIU) and Dr. Antonio Alfonso, head of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Division, told 140 mayors who participated in a conference on the role of LGUs in attaining the MDG, that biotechnology is seen as a powerful strategy of the national and local governments in “fighting poverty, enhancing human development, and building prosperity for the greatest number of Filipino people.” The conference was held under the auspices of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP).

Alfonso said that PhilRice is developing technologies to alleviate the poverty of rice farmers. He said that the institute is now on its final stage of developing “Wag-wag” rice that is short-maturing, saline-tolerant and ensures yield of more than 5 tons per hectare.

Alfonso added that biotechnology is at the forefront of enhancing foods and crops in order to attain higher nutritional quality, so that farmers can have easy access to nutritious and even supplementary food. Examples are the cooking oil with mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, Vitamin E-enriched corn and canola oil, all of which are now available in the market.

“Soon to come from PhilRice is the Vitamin A rice, or rice-fortified with Vitamin A,” Alfonso said. “Parents need not spend extra money for vitamins when vitamins are incorporated in staple food.”

On the other hand, Ilaga said the Memorandum of Understanding on Biotechnology Information, Education and Technology Exchange Cooperation between the DA and the LMP, signed by former Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and LMP President Mayor Ramon Guico, is already a big leap towards cooperation on maximizing biotechnology to make sure that development benefits the smallest communities.

“Applications of biotechnology in agriculture and health have already proved very effective in raising the income of farmers and ensuring food security through crop innovations that ensure higher harvested yield, reduced crop losses and input costs, and increased value of grains,” Ilaga said.

“More jobs are also created with the adoption of each technology,” she added.

Statistics indicate that the Visayas regions showed a high proportion of food-poor population. Eastern Visayas ranked 7^th among regions with a food-poor population, at 21 percent At rank 10 is Western Visayas with a hungry population of 17.7 percent and at rank 12 is Central Visayas, where 14.6 percent are hungry.

The MDG Report also revealed that the Philippines ranks poor in global competitiveness, continuing to slide down from 48 in 2001 to 76 in 2004.

A factor which tips the scales in the Philippines’ favor in developing biotech-based industries is its incredible diversity of terrestrial, marine and microbial life. It opens great opportunities for the production of natural products, nutraceuticals and potentially therapeutic natural compounds.

“Biotechnology offers many opportunities for local government units to solve community problems of hunger, poverty, diseases and environmental degradation,” Ilaga said. “It empowers communities to be able to contribute in addressing the challenges of the Millennium Development Goals.”

Ilaga said that the second target to eradicate poverty and hunger is to “halve the proportion of the population below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption and halve the proportion.”

She said that breakthroughs in cancer-fighting tomatoes and edible vaccines are now gaining headway through biotechnology.

“Biotechnology allowed the development of safer, cheaper, more effective and longer-lasting vaccines,” Ilaga said. “Recombinant gene technology allowed the development of genetically defined live or inactivated vaccines.”

Soon to come out in the market is a vaccine against rotavirus, a major cause of diarrhea that may lead to severe dehydration in young children, she added.

Ilaga said the support of the LMP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government is the key to implementation of biotechnology programs at the local levels. The DA can provide the support to local government units for effective utilization of the technologies.