A former Scout Ranger general and leading Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) member is now in the thick of a revolutionary struggle, this time aimed at reducing poverty and eradicating hunger all over the country through biotechnology.

Retired Army General Marcelo Blando, who once commanded the Scout Ranger regiment that laid siege on Makati's financial district in the 1989 coup try which almost toppled the regime of President Corazon Aquino, has changed tack. He is now commanding a ,regiment of farmers in Northern Luzon with a mission to boost agricultural production and improve their incomes.

Blando, who heads a community-based farmers' cooperative that successfully harvested and exported Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn to South Korea, told a recent gathering of farmers from Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon, Laguna. Bu.lacan and Mindoro in Quezon City, that he has turned the weapons of war into plow- shares and is now successfully operating a five-hectare Bt corn farm in Pangasinan.

As a member of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) in Pangasinan, Blando oversees the strict implementation of Administrative Order No. 8 issued by the Department of Agriculture (DA), which strictly regulates the safe productive fanning of genetically modified organisms.

Blando's cooperative has developed a Bt-com farming system and cropping pattern that guarantee bountiful harvests. The Bt corn can be harvested after 85 days. The secret, he explained, lies in planting Bt-corn Isoline in the first cropping followed by Bt corn on the second and third croppings.

He said that South Koreans prefer Bt corn to the standard crop because of its rich texture and absence of Asian corn-borer penetration scars. Blando said the Aflatoxin level found in his Bt corn is 10 parts per million, well below the tolerable safety limit.

"Bt corn is easier to plant than the conventional corn," Blando continued. "The yield per hectare is eight tons compared to two tons per hectare on ordinary corn."

"Healthy leaves, healthy stalks, healthy crops, and a clean and delicious golden appearance is what makes Bt corn the perfect crop," said the former general.

Blando said agriculturists from the National Crop Protection Center visit his farm regularly. He used to plant palay but shifted to Bt corn because of its economic rewards.

"Bt corn planting will reduce our corn importation and save much-needed dollars for the country," said Blando. "We will need to import more corn, even rice and other agricultural products if farmers do not shift to biotechnology now."

Blando told the farmers in the forum that he has asked the DA to provide extension services to Bt-corn growers and monitor their needs, as well as those of farmers producing other crops. With his rich experience in agriculture, he plans to educate farmers in remote areas on the benefits and safe use of biotechnology crops.

He also brushed aside the misinformation campaign of anti-biotechnology activists. "They don't know what they are talking about. Not a single death or disease has been related to biotechnology crops since its inception, some years ago."