November 2007

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Editorial

Biotech to the rescue

AS the world grapples for the production of biofuels owing to the skyrocketing prices of fossil fuels, the country should take bold steps to strengthen its food security, intensify research and development (R&D) and ensure that there will be food in the pantry for most Filipinos.

It is a big task for the country’s leaders to guarantee that the nation’s shrinking hectarage for agriculture would yield enormous quantities of rice, corn, vegetables, fruits and that seas around us, the freshwater bodies and brackish areas would provide us with fish and other marine products.

With a type of agriculture that is largely dependent on the weather, the country is compelled to rely on scientific breakthroughs to increase harvests, promote sturdy crops and use even hostile terrain to produce food.

The country’s hope for a regime of higher food productivity and abundant incomes for farmers cannot be achieved without resorting to the use of biotechnology, which has been proven scientifically as the best thing that ever happened to agriculture.

For nearly a century, Filipino experts have been trying to figure out how to end that nasty thing called import dependency on food and the scientists have tried their utter best to develop better crops that are pest-resistant and possess a higher level of micronutrients.

For many years, their job was a lonely one and whatever breakthroughs they had achieved have been for naught, simply because the country could not shake off its lethargy and chart a food policy that focuses on intensifying agricultural production rather than expanding importations.

Yes, a policy that places more importance to imports would kill local scientific initiative and open the country to threats on food security, which is precisely what the mad cow, avian flu and other diseases that jump from animals to humans represent.

It is time for the government, and the private sector as well, to remember that our being an archipelago saves us from the perils of mad cow and avian flu and also lays the territorial basis for us to develop homegrown crops that have distinct advantages over those grown elsewhere.

Biotechnology will be of immense help in achieving food security and guaranteeing the safety of the things we eat, the animal we breed and the crops we cultivate. In short, it will be biotech to the rescue.

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Biotech to the rescue

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