Alarmed by the rapid population growth and the massive conversion of agricultural lands for industrial, commercial and residential purposes, local chief executives of Bulacan are now advocating the use of modern biotechnology to increase agricultural production.

Mayors Ambrosio Cruz of Guiuinto, Bulacan, who is also president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Bulacan Chapter, said the application of modern biotechnology in agriculture is sure to rejuvenate farming and aquaculture in Bulacan and will also open up new business opportunities for local investors.

He led municipal chief executives in Bulacan in signing a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Agriculture following a two-day seminar at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in Subic, Zambales, last week.

During the signing, Cruz said the LMP Bulacan Chapter will pass a resolution supporting the DA's biotech programs.

He said he sill also urge fellow mayors to specifically designate an area devoted to crop biotechnology, such as Bt corn, the first genetically modified crop released in the Philippine market for commercial production.

He said the province's population is about to breach the three million mark as it grows by at least 4.7 percent annually.

"Bulacan is growing fast and this means increase in demand for food. We need to improve our agricultural production. Since our agricultural lands are being swallowed by industrialization, we need to look for ways to increase food production," Cruz said.

Bulacan's total land area is 262,500 hectares, of which, less than half or 121,066 hectares are being used for agriculture.

The mayor pointed to the massive land conversion in the province in the last decades as the cause of the reduction of its agricultural land to the current size that may not be able to support the food demand of its residents.

The Guiguinto mayor said modern biotechnology applied in agriculture would make wonders and somehow increase food production.

According to him, here are new technologies that the farmers can use to increase the yield and reduce the cost of production. He said that there are companies that are willing to held local farmers in marketing their produce.

Cruz also said that his fellow mayors are currently discussing the possibilities of more competitive agricultural production by assigning what crops a municipality should plant on a certain season in order not to compete with each other.

"The problem in agricultural production is that with so much supply in the market, the price decreases and the farmers end up as losers," he said.

He explained that the Thai-inspired one-town, one-production strategy can be used as a model in Bulacan.

Other local chief executives have expressed support to Cruz' proposals saying it is a good starting point in improving agricultural production. They said this will go government's high-value commercial crops (HVCC) program.

Mayor Felix Ople of Hagonoy, basically the aquaculture center of Bulacan, said biotech will help fishermen produce aqua feeds through vermiculture, a technology that makes use of earthworms to make compost or organic fertilizer from biodegradable wastes from farms.

For his part, Mayor Edgardo Galvez of San Ildefonso town said his constituents will be able too increase production with the intervention of modern biotechnology in agriculture. San Ildefonso is known as the vegetable basket of Bulacan.

In fact, Galvez said, San Ildefonso has already started a tissue culture for plant breeding in his town through the Bulacan Agricultural State College (BASC) for the mass production of a superior breed of vegetable crops.

With increased productivity, the mayors said the farmers and operators of fish cages will have increase in income and a better chance to venture into small business that can provide jobs to other people.