Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban assured that more products of agricultural biotechnology developed by Filipino scientists will soon be out in the market as the government steps up the program to increase food production and ensure the country's food security.

First of what he describes as "Pinoy Biotek" products will be the cloned carabao of "Super buffalo" of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), which recently embarked on a massive artificial insemination program of carabao in Luzon.

According to Panganiban, the PCC will come up with the cloned buffalo within the next two years at the same time that a pest-resistant breed of eggplant will soon be commercialized.

The program aims to teach villagers how to artificially inseminate female carabao with the semen of the male carabao with the semen of the "Super Buffalo" to increase milk and meat production.

The "Super Buffalo" is bigger in size and produces more milk than the native carabao. He said papaya resistant to the ring spot virus, papaya with delayed ripening trait, multivirus resistant tomato and other genetically improved variety of crops are currently in the pipeline. He said the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is also developing multivitamin-enriched rice.

Panganiban said the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is also developing improved breed of tilapia and milkfish (bangus) that are better-tasting, fast-growing and can live in different conditions.

He said BFAR has recently came up wit tilapia that can survive in cold and salt water, and are now being cultures in marine areas in the Cordillera and Mindanao.

The Philippine Coconut Authority, he said, is also coming up with a kadang-kadang-resistant variety of coconut to solve the problem brought about by the disease.