Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban yesterday batted for the wider use of biotechnology to solve chronic food shortages and prevent artificially induced crop scarcity to push up prices.

Panganiban made this pitch at the opening of the Agrilink, Foodlink and Aqualink 2006 show at the World Trade Center in Pasay City yesterday morning.

He stressed that the severe damage wrought by typhoon Milenyo on areas producing rice, corn, vegetables and aquatic products has prompted the Department of Agriculture (DA) to rush assistance to farmers in six regions, principally Southern Tagalog and Bicol, both of which sustained losses running into billions.

"One sure way of increasing farm and fishery productivity is through the use of modern technologies and appropriate plant and animal genetic materials that successfully have been field tested," he said. "These include high-yielding, pest-resistant crop varieties, more prolific, meatier and leaner livestock and poultry and fast-growing, disease-resistant fish and aquaculture species."

The show, which will exhibit biotechnology products from the Philippines, France, Thailand, the United States, and China, has been touted as the country's biggest agriculture and fishery exposition this year.

It was mounted by the Foundation for Resource Linkage and Development (FRLD) under Antonio Roces and showcases the latest advances in biotechnology.

Panganiban said "We have already mobilized our regional offices, particularly in Bicol and Calabarzon, to provide the needed assistance in the form of seeds, planting materials, fingerlings, and other production inputs."

The DA chief said he has also recommended the importation of 3 million kilos of dressed chicken to supply the needs of the market during the holidays as the poultry sector was hit hardest by Milenyo.

Curiously, the typhoon hit Luzon as the Japanese government lifted its ban on the importation of chicken from the Philippines. Panganiban also assured participants in the show that the skyrocketing prices of vegetables would soon abate as convoys of trucks from the Cordilleras are bringing in thousands of tons of vegetables for the National Capital Region (NCR).

Areas in Southern Tagalog spared by Milenyo are also sending in shipments of vegetables and other food products while at least two ships laden with food from Region 10 in Mindanao are also sailing for Manila.

"Here in the Philippines, biotechnology is helping us achieve food sufficiency. The increasing use of hybrid rice and corn seeds by Filipino farmers is now paying off. They are achieving record harvests and incomes, and more importantly enabling our country to inch closer to self-sufficiency in rice and corn. In aquaculture, our fishpond farmers are profitably raising fast-growing genetically-enhanced tilapia and all-male tilapia. Some of them are exhibited right here for all to see and appreciate the wonders of genetics and biotechnology in the field of agriculture, fisheries and agribusiness," Panganiban told show participants.

"We at the DA firmly believe that biotechnology will continue to play an increasing role to modernize Philippine agriculture and fisheries and attain our food sufficiency and global competitiveness," he added.

As this developed, farmers belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said the damage to agriculture and fisheries in six regions hit by the super typhoon may actually be more than P2 billion, about 400 percent higher than the initial estimate of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos has urged government to increase the tarmgate price of palay to a maximum of P15 per kilo from the current price that varies from P7 to P9 per kilo at harvest time to an unprofitable P4.50 per kilo during lean periods.

Ramos and other militant farmers want government to increase the subsidy for farmers and end the liberalization of Philippine agriculture.