Southeast Asian
nations should follow the Philippines down the path to biotech crops for food
security, argues Crispin Maslog.
Since biotechnology-derived crops were introduced in
1996, they have been adopted at an unprecedented rate, according to the 2011
annual report of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA) released earlier this year.
There was a “94-fold increase from 1.7 million hectares
in 1996 to 160 million hectares in 2011, making biotech crops the
fastest-adopted crop technology in the history of modern agriculture,” says
Clive James, chair of the Philippines-based ISAAA, who wrote the report.
Particularly striking is the phenomenally rapid adoption
of biotech crops in a handful of developing countries – Argentina, Brazil,
China, India, the Philippines, and South Africa – which have adopted such crops
twice as quickly as developed nations. Together, these few countries now grow
more than 40 percent of the world’s GM crops.
Even so, the spread of biotech crops has been patchy. In
Southeast Asia, only the Philippines, which reported a 20 percent increase in
biotech maize last year, and Myanmar have been quick to adopt them.
Faced with a rapidly expanding population and a shortage
of agricultural land, the region should now embrace biotech crops.
Barriers to growth
Barriers to growth
There is an ongoing debate about the benefits and safety
of new or improved crops developed through modern biotechnology – which
includes genetic modification but also techniques such as tissue culture.
The potential benefits of biotech crops for Southeast
Asia cannot be ignored: they include tolerance to salinity, resistance to
pests, and enhanced nutritional value. Nutritionally enhanced foods may not be
a necessity in developed nations, but they can help to mitigate malnutrition in
developing countries.
However, there are barriers to adopting biotech crops in
this part of the world, such as a lack of proper regulations, insufficient
support from policymakers, and a shortage of balanced information available to
stakeholders.
Consumers want to know whether biotech foods are safe,
cheaper, and more nutritious. And farmers want to know whether they will
improve yields. “More than 90 percent of farmers worldwide (equivalent to over
15 million farmers) are smallholders, resource-poor and live in developing
countries,” says James.
One way to help smallholders reap the benefits of biotech
crops is to remove the need to buy new GM seeds every year.
Bt cotton is currently the only GM crop grown
commercially by smallholders in China, India, Pakistan, Colombia, Egypt, and
Burkina Faso.
Routes to success
Routes to success
According to James, successful commercialization of
biotech crops depends on the development of innovative technologies, along with
governments providing political support and “science-based, time- and
cost-effective deregulation. It would also require government initiatives and
private investments.
One bright hope is the expected commercial approval in
2013-14 of the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) nutritionally
enriched Golden Rice in Bangladesh, China,kthe Philippines, and Vietnam, which
are each currently evaluating the product with a view to adopting it.
Biotech maize developed in the Philippines is another
possibility for wider adoption in neighboring Southeast Asian countries. And
field trials are being carried out on priority crops in Bangladesh, Indonesia,
Thailand, and Vietnam in preparation for commercialization.
The Philippines is the first country in Asia to establish
a regulatory framework for the adoption of GM crops. While developers are
gearing up to commercialize their crops, some issues are still being discussed,
such as questions of biosafety liability and redress, the possibility of
un!pproved genetic changes (unique DNA recombinations) to biotech products
already on the market, and labeling requirements.
Any new regulations are set to follow the international
standards set by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of the UN Convention on
Biological Diversity, which the Philippines signed in 2000.
The rest of Southeast Asia should follow suit and give
policymakers enough science-based materials and training to develop regulations
for GM crop research and commercialization. There is also a need for continuous
debate around biotech crops, particularly regarding the science, the benefits,
and the potential risks – and the media must play a role in this.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed about
US$2 billion to global agriculture and nutrition programs, including biotech
crop research, and several organisations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are
working to build local capacity to manage the acquisition, deployment, and
monitoring of biotech crops.
Southeast Asian nations need to harness science to feed
their growing populations, and biotech crops should be an important part of the
region’s agricultural policies.
——
Source: Science &
Development Network
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