The University of the Philippines Institute of Plant Breeding and Agroseed Philippines have started the controversial field testing of Bt corn in General Santos City, despite opposition raised by some non-government organizations as to its possible adverse effects on the environment.

This was after the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines, headed by Science and Technology Undersecretary Rogelio Panlasigui, decided with finality last Dec. 15 to junk motions for the NCBP to reverse its earlier approval of the field tests, since no new issues were raised.

Pioneer, another private company that enjoys a patent for Bt corn, also got the NCBP's nod to undertake its own field test also in General Santos sometime in June this year.

Key scientific and factual results from the field test will help determine if the Bt corn technology will be effective in dealing with one of the biggest problems of corn farmers -- the Asian corn borer -- and if it will be beneficial for use by Filipino farmers under local conditions (test for local adaptability).

Bt or Bacillus thuringiensis is a soil bacterium that produces the natural pesticide against the Asian corn borer which is responsible for some 20 to 30 percent of losses experienced by Filipino corn farmers every year.

Conventional pesticides are able to cut down five to 10 percent, but the pouring of pesticides into the ground can result in massive and long-term environmental degradation, according to Dr. Randy Hautea, director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), an international NGO that was put up to facilitate technology transfer to developing countries. Hautea was former head of the UP-IPB based in Los Baños.

Hautea told The STAR that preliminary trials conducted in Los Baños showed that Bt corn is totally immune to the Asian corn borer. "The field tests are meant to see whether this is also true for a wider scale," he said.

The UP-IPB was designated under the Seed Industry Development Act as the lead national agency for biotechnology and crop improvement, thus its involvement in the Bt corn testing, the first time that a genetically engineered crop will be field tested in the Philippines.

Agroseed Phils. and Pioneer on the one hand are the commercial companies that have filed applications (and secured approval) with the NCBP for the field test of Bt corn in the Philippines.

Both Agroseed and Pioneer have their research stations in General Santos. If the field tests are successful, both companies will then undertake multilocational field trials which no longer need NCBP approval. These trials will then serve as basis for the two private companies to decide whether it makes good business sense to commercialize Bt corn in the country. But commercialization will need the go-signal of the National Seed Industry Council.

In a statement furnished The STAR, UP-IPB's deputy director Dr. Eduardo Fernandez and Agroseed's research director and former IPB deputy director Dr. Manny Logrono said they have fully complied with the guidelines set by the NCBP which they said has one of the most stringent biosafety guidelines in the world.

Bt corn seeds were planted in a 500-square meter plot in Barangay Lagao, General Santos City as of Dec. 15, 1999 in the presence of authorized representatives from the Bureau of Plant Industry plant quarantine service (BPI-PQS) and all members of the local institutional biosafety committee, including two community representatives.

IPB and Agroseed said that throughout the field test, NCBP, the local IBC representatives and the BPI-PQS monitoring team will closely monitor the growth of the plants and ensure that safety guidelines are followed.

Three main features of the NCBP guidelines include time isolation wherein the planting was done more than 21 days after the planting of non Bt- corn plants in nearby fields; detasseling (removal of the male flower) of all Bt corn plants to prevent cross-pollination; and the putting up of a 10-foot high physical barrier as an added safety measure.

UP-IPB and Agroseed said the careful evaluation of plant biotechnology products such as Bt corn will contribute to the long-term objective of providing Filipino farmers the choice to use the latest agricultural technology in the world today to improve the quality of their lives and to compete in an increasingly complex global market.

Biotechnology has long been used in the country, in particular the technique known as tissue culture which is already in use in the propagation of abaca, banana, rattan, bamboo, potato and orchids. Traditional fermentation which uses microorganisms, as well as molecular markers, are two other techniques of biotechnology.

Genetic engineering is considered the most controversial biotechnology technique, but the one that holds much promise. There are now 40 million hectares planted to transgenic or genetically modified or engineered crops all over the world.