Monsanto Philippines Inc. (MPI), a biotechnology research firm, is harvesting its first genetically modified (GM) corn in over 120 hectares of land and is anticipating an accelerated acceptance of the technology as the GM crop has offered solution to the perennial corn-borer problem of farmers.

Noel Borlongan, MPI spokesman, said that harvest in commercial scale for Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn is already going on all over Ilocos, Isabela, Pangasinan, Camarines Sur and Misamis Oriental.

He said that the first cropping is expected to encourage farmers to shift to the technology in the next planting.

"We are expecting 100 percent corn borer protection. In Isabela, if the normal yield for hybrid corn is five tons per hectare, we're getting six tons per hectare for Bt corn," Borlongan said.

Before Bt corn's commercialization approval, MPI has been distributing to the country hybrid corn which already has a significant edge over open-pollinated varieties (OPV).

OPVs has sent the Philippines' corn yield average to just one metric ton (MT) per hectare over the years. And yet Bt corn, which has the protein gene that is resistant to corn borer, can yield as much as eight to nine tons per hectare. 

Borlonagn said that while the first season commercial planting only involved 120 hectares, planting for the west season is estimated to reach to 15,000 hectares.

"We expect all 15,000 bags (of Bt corn seeds for commercial planting) to be sold out because farmers have been waiting for it for a long time," he said.

MPI's Bt corn variety Mon 810 has the permit to be consumed both as feed and food. However, Borlongan said, yellow corn is basically used for feed rather than food.

The company has initially imported from South Africa Bt corn seeds for commercial planting in the Philippines during the dry season. But MPI is targeting to eventually produce all Bt corn seed requirement form the local farms.

The Philippines imports some one million MT of corn and corn substitutes yearly as the feed processing industry has been requiring some 5.5 million MT of corn annually.

As part of the solution to fill in the production gap, the government has approved commercialization of Bt corn after three years of greenhouse and field testing.

The government is also working on cutting down post harvest loss which reaches 10 to 20 percent of harvest particularly in large corn areas in Mindanao including General Santos and Bukidnon.

Mindanao produces around 60 percent of corn supply in the country, but a majority of feed requirement is needed to be shipped to Luzon.

Meanwhile, the Philippines Seed Industry Association (PSIA) praise the government for its firm stand on the propagation of Bt corn in the country, citing that the product had already undergone a very strict, science-based risk assessment and evaluation by numerous regulatory agencies and independent scientists.

PSIA president Dante M. Balbas and the seed company approved the position of the association during the height of the unwarranted pressure on the government by Greenpeace, SEARICE and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

To date, the opposition groups have not presented any science-based evidence that the Bt corn technology is harmful, and they have recently ended their protest at the gates of the government building.

Bt corn, a genetically modified organism (GMO), has been commercialized for more than five years in the United States, Canada, and Japan, among others. Since its introduction in the world market, there have been no reports of any harmful incident or death caused by the technology.

In the Philippines, however, Bt corn has been approved for propagation only in December 2002 after more than five years of testing under the strict supervision of the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI). The crop is resistant only to the Asiatic corn borer the most prevalent corn pest in the country. (PNA)