Saying that science and technology provide the key to new ways of resolving most development problems improving quality of life, outgoing Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told yesterday, before farmers from Iloilo, the Negros provinces, the Samar provinces and Leyte.

Yap challenged government officials and field specialists to focus on research and improve agricultural production to boost food security and address the chronic woes of the poor, who are often bypassed in such initiatives.

In keynoting the opening ceremonies for the First National Biotechnology Week, Yap also invited private investors people's organizations and local government units to check out the new, exciting areas where biotechnology is changing people's lives for the better.

These new initiatives are showcased in a technology shopping seminar and exhibit, featuring research and development work done by both the government and private sector. The seminars and exhibits are among the activities lined up for the week.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) had led five other agencies in getting President Arroyo to declare Biotechnology Week in the hope, Yap said, that "it will allow us to fulfill our highest aspirations for using biotechnology for development and human progress."

The other agencies are the Department of Health, Trade and Industry, Interior and Local Government, Environment and Natural Resources, and of Science and Technology.

Biotechnology, according Yap, is an indispensable part of the development blueprint, playing a crucial role "in attaining our 10-point agenda - notably in increasing agricultural production and boosting food security, in creating agricultural jobs and expanding agribusiness investments, in reducing agricultural importations and thus boosting foreign exchange savings."

He added that biotechnology allows "us to pursue, despite a strict fiscal regime, the 10-point agenda of our administration. Besides agriculture, biotechnology has also been playing a key role in health, as manifested by the abundant research being done on vaccines, antibiotics, among others, thus, reducing the cost of health care.

The role of science and technology - biotechnology in particular - is acknowledged "in all development blueprints around the world, be these in First on Third World countries, but especially in the poor ones," said Yap.

To prove his point, Yap noted that celebrated economics professor Jeffrey Sachs paid special attention to the "science-for-development" plank his pathbreaking book, "The End of Poverty; How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime."

Sachs, who spent more than 20 years as some sort of an economic troubleshooter for all kinds of countries, has been named special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan precisely because of his vast knowledge and experience in dealing with poverty and development issues in different settings.

"Yet it is remarkable that in whatever context he works in, he puts a premium on investing in the use of science and technology for development - be it in agriculture, health, or environmental protection. It is easy to understand why by listening to what he has to say in his book," said the DA chief.

He quoted Sachs as listing "core breakthroughs in long-term economic development," mostly form new technologies: The Green Revolution for food production, vaccines and immunizations, antimalarial beds net, oral rehydration therapies agroforestry to replenish soil nutrients, antiretroviral medicines.

Still citing Sachs, he stressed the pitch that governments, and all those in a position to influence the direction of future R&D work, must ensure that "these put a premium on improving quality of life of the poor and ending deprivation and misery, especially preventable diseases and hunger, and other manifestations of poverty.

The international scientific community is likely to bypass the concerns of the poor, Sachs had argued, and so he proceeds to identify "priority needs for scientific research in relation to the poor, spurring those concerned to mobilize the donor assistance to spur the R and D required."

Yap urged partners in and out of government to "channel our best talents and energies" to fighting diseases of the poor, especially tropical diseases; focusing on new seed varieties, water management techniques and soil management techniques; and giving priority to sustainable management of ecosystems.

In the Philippines, he said, "we expect more substantial applications to hasten our march to human progress in the next few years, considering the diversity of R&D projects that will be showcased in the technology shopping forum, and the BioLife exhibit that are part of our main activities this week. The technology shopping forum alone is a gold mine of examples of how technology can fuel movements in industry and in turn generate investments and create jobs, even as the new applications improve quality of life and help eradicate poverty and misery."

Besides the technology shopping seminar and exhibits, other activities for the week's celebration are: A forum on biotechnology research, focusing on generic engineering and on the benefits and risks of biotechnology; a seminar on the latest breakthroughs in forensic science for better anticrime programs; "farmer-to-market exchange" in Pangasinan, and; the launching of the Biotechnology Intellectual Property Center at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) in Nueva Ecija.