LOS BAÑOS, Laguna: The modern uses of biotechnology in genetically improving crops have been stressed in a two-day workshop here.

Speaking before some 35 journalists, Dr. Desiree Hautea, director of the Institute of Plant Breeding of the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, said that "biotechnology will help the country to move forward."

Biotechnology is a technique that uses a living organism, or parts of it, to improve another living organism for a specific purpose.

Hautea said the Filipinos have been using biotechnology for centuries in making vinegar and wine.

But she said such were its traditional uses. Today, she explained, the institute, together with the Southeast Asian Graduate Studies Research Center on Agriculture, is pushing for modern biotechnology that involves the modification and improvement of crops.

She said the Philippines lags behind many Asian countries, especially China which has more than 40 approved genetically modified crops compared with the country's only two.

She cited the use of genetically modified corn, commonly known as Bt corn, which has improved the lives of farmers through their drastically reduced dependence on the use of pesticides.

In the past, biotechnology was also used to produce cheese, soy sauce, bread, beer and life-saving antibiotics and vaccines for rabies and Hepatitis B.

It is also being used to produce pest-resistant crops to increase the yield of farmers. But it has become controversial as environmentalists have expressed concern over its effects on the ecology.