Download PDF - SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center

16 BIO LIFE January – March 2005
AFTER ONE YEAR OF COMMERCIAL ADOPTION:
By LYN RESURRECCION
THE debate on biotechnology, or specifi
cally on genetically modified organisms
(GMOs), has quieted down in the past year
from the fever-pitch level of more than two
years ago, although the opposition against
the modern technology that is seen to dominate
the new millennium still persists.
At the center of the debate in the country
was the controversial Bt (Bacillus
thuringiensis) corn, the product of a process
where the Bt protein found in the soil is integrated
into the corn plant to equip it with a
high degree of resistance to the damaging
Asian corn borer.
Critics oppose the technology in the
name of human safety and the environment,
despite the scientists’ persistent denials
of such peril, and painstaking explanations
that there has been no evidence to
that effect.
But, at least, so far for now, the days of
plant pulling, such as in the Bt corn field
trial in Tampakan, South Cotabato, and the
emotion-filled rallies or fora against the
technology, have passed.
Since the Department of Agriculture approved
in December 2002 the commercial
release of Bt corn, what have been seen
and heard are testimonies in favor of the
main beneficiaries of the technology—the
farmers—on the advantages of the use of
Bt corn. In a paper at the 45th National
PAEDA Convention in Quezon City in October,
entitled, “Economic Impact of Bt Corn
in the Philippines,” Jose M. Yorobe Jr., assistant
professor of the Department of Agricultural
Economics at the University of the
Philippines Los Baños, said that after one
year of commercial adoption in only about
10,000 hectares planted to Bt corn in the
country, substantial unit-yield increase of
as much as 37 percent was realized by the
Bt corn farms.
“This translates to an additional profit
of P10,132 per hectare with a reduction in
insecticide expenditures of 60 percent. An
incremental net income of P1.34 per kilogram
was gained by the Bt corn users, al-
though the seed cost was twice the ordinary
hybrid,” Yorobe said in the paper. He
acknowledged that the paper was part of a
study by the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications
(ISAAA), a not-for-profit organization, on
the impact of Bt corn in the Philippines.
ISAAA centers are based in the Philippines,
Kenya and the United States. He
stressed that the adoption of Bt corn in the
country, albeit still limited in time and
hectarage, showed a significant impact on
the farm financial performance as shown
by the adoption elasticity that was even
higher than those observed in developed
countries. The Yorobe paper used data from
the ISAAA survey, which interviewed 107
Bt and 362 non-Bt corn farmers in the wet
and dry seasons of crop-year 2003 and
2004 in four major Bt-corn adopting provinces
of Isabela, Camarines Sur, Bukidnon
and South Cotabato.
At least three towns and three
barangays per town were chosen based on
the density of Bt corn adopters.