www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

A plan by the Philippines to become one of the first nations to introduce
genetically modified rice may be delayed by several years, despite an
aggressive start, October 2005 by Sambit Mohanty.

The country is unlikely to commercialise a transgenic variety, resistant
to bacterial leaf blight disease, on which it conducted field trials this
year, said Leo Sebastian, executive director of the state-funded Philippine
Rice Research Institute.

"Unfortunately, the variety in which the transgenic gene was placed is not
very popular among the country's consumers, farmers and millers," Sebastian
told Reuters in an interview, referring to the IR-72 variety.

"It's not commercially viable. We are trying to find other varieties. You
cannot do genetic transformation in every variety. Our scientists have tried
transforming other popular varieties but they have so far not been as
successful as the IR-72 variety."

The Philippines is Asia's first nation to commercialise genetically modified
corn. The Southeast Asian nation, along with India and China, has been
aggressively pushing research on a few varieties of genetically modified
rice in recent years.

But Greenpeace and other groups have stepped up protests on the government's
plan to push biotech crops, saying they threaten consumer health and the
environment.

And as the Philippines struggles to find ways of achieving self-sufficiency
in the food grain and reduce imports, Sebastian said the country's earlier
aim of commercialising genetically modified rice within two years now looked
difficult.

"It will be very optimistic now to say two years. The pace at which we are
going, it could take up to five years," he added.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

The Philippines is not the only nation whose plans have suffered setbacks.
China is also facing hurdles and is unlikely to approve a transgenic variety
this year, as expected earlier.

"We don't have more field trials planned this year," Sebastian said. "But
the International Rice Research Institute is holding trials. If they are
successful with varieties acceptable to consumers then we can probably push
for commercialisation." The opposition to GMO food crops is much stronger
than for crops such as cotton and feed crops such as corn. Last year,
Monsanto Co. dropped plans to introduce the world's first GMO wheat, after
worldwide protests.

"Commercialising transgenic corn in the Philippines was much easier since
most of those go into animal feed and are not consumed by humans. Cows and
chickens are not going to give you a stong opinion," Sebastian added.

Despite domestic rice production rising, the Southeast Asian nation still
imports about one million tonnes of rice a year, due to growing demand and
population growth. The Philippines had set a production target of 15.1
million tonnes of rice for this year but erratic weather reduced the crop to
about 14.8 million tonnes. The government has set a production target of
15.8 million tonnes for next year.

"We are expecting production to rise next year and the government is aiming
to reduce imports, but we are not going to be self-sufficient by next year.
We will still have to import," Sebastian said.

He said his institute and other government agencies were trying to boost the
country average rice yields, currently around 3.3 tonnes per hectare.
Vietnam's average yields are about 4 tonnes per hectare and China's at more
than 6 tonnes.

"We are trying to introduce other high-yielding varieties of rice, not
necessarily genetically modified," Sebastian said. "We are taking steps to
improve management techniques to make our irrigation systems and other
things more efficient."

[today.reuters.com]

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