Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology Products
quired investment in equipment to produce 1,162 liters is USD170,500. The benefit/cost ratio is
1:1.9.
Tissue Cultured Planting Materials (Banana, Orchids)
The most common application of tissue culture technology is for banana and orchids. Large
private sector companies use tissue cultured banana for their planting materials. A growing
number of SMEs and community-based enterprises (CBEs) are engaged in commercializing tissue
cultured planting materials for banana and orchids and benefit from government-supported
projects and training programs. There is a need, however, to rationalize the proliferation of tissue
culture laboratories and maintain only a limited number in strategic locations (National Fruits
R&D Team, 2002). A tissue culture facility for banana with 15,000 plantlets/month capacity will
provide an 84% internal rate of return (IRR). It has a three-year payback period and 15% net
present worth (NPW), with USD19,500 opportunity cost of capital.
While some agri-biotech products have met with a degree of success in the market, most
remain on the shelf. The major obstacles to commercialization have been the traditional production
orientation of publicly-funded R&D, scientists’ desire to keep their technology to themselves,
research managers who lack entrepreneurial and technology management skills, inadequate
incentives for extension agents to promote products, the lack of clear IPR policy and
guidelines, and limited public-private sector partnerships.
The advent of globalization will necessitate a shift in the technology commercialization
paradigm by the Philippine National Research System (NARS) from the traditional supplydriven
and production-oriented approach to a more market–driven and private-sector-led approach
(Figure 1). The problems in commercialization associated with the former must be
avoided and an increase in private sector investments in R&D encouraged following the latter.
Modern Biotechnology
Modern biotechnology utilizes transgenic approaches to plant and animal improvement as a
result of a lack of suitable conventional approaches to dealing with a particular agronomic problem
or need (e.g., Papaya Ringspot Virus).
Not all modern biotechnologies generate transgenic or so-called genetically modified organisms
(GMOs). Ongoing modern biotechnology projects and tools—for example, molecular
mapping, marker-assisted breeding, and bioinformatics—are already being applied with many
plant and animal gene pools to generate improved varieties and other industrial applications
which are not transgenic and hence outside the restrictions of current biosafety regulations.
The government has supported modern biotechnology since 1997, particularly work on
transgenics for selected economically important crops—corn, papaya, mango, and coconut. The
work has expanded to include other crops and other traits, the majority of which are in the research
stage (Table 2). Only Bt corn produced by Monsanto has been commercialized since
2002.
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