The government is intensifying research and development (R&D) on several commodities while boosting production of nontraditional agricultural products through biotechnology to help increase farmers income and spur economic growth in the countryside.

Director Alice Ilaga of the Biotechnology Program Office (BPO) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said her office is now conducting an assessment of several R&D programs being pursued by the department.

She said she is pushing for the propagation of superior rice varieties, genetically improved coconut, papaya, abaca and even yeast mixes that will improve the production and recovery of ethanol from sugar cane, sweet sorghum and sweet potato for biofuels.

Ilaga’s office has also been tapped to work closely with the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in battling the invasive pest Brontispa longissima, the coconut-leaf-eating beetle that threatens the entire coconut industry, through biotechnology, and the indigenous predator earwig, which feasts on Brontispa larvae, according to PCA administrator Oscar Garin.

Ilaga revealed that DA-BPO, with the National Fisheries Research Development Institute, will work on high-yielding and disease-resistant seaweed strains while encouraging the massive cultivation of malunggay, papaya and other fruits that produce active ingredients that are in high demand by cosmetics and pharmaceutical Corporations involved in the natural-ingredients industry.

She said there is a bright prospect for rice biotechnology, with some varieties readied for commercial release.

Among these varieties is the bacterial blight (BB)-resistant hybrid rice, which will most likely be made available next year.

The project, in support to the DA’s Hybrid Rice Program, aims to come up with the BB-resistant hybrid rice, which serves as a promising line for the production of BB-resistant Mestizo1, the most widely used hybrid in the Philippines.

According to Ilaga, the project will help address bacterial blight, which affects rice farms in six regions and causing a substantial income loss of P271 million per year.

By 2011, she said, a vitamin-enriched genetically improved rice variety being developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice) and known popularly as the Golden Rice will be available commercially.

Golden Rice is regarded as a solution to the chronic malnutrition problem in the country, since it is rich in iron and vitamin A, which are required for rice, salt, flour and other commodities under the Fortification Law.

The DA-BPO is also stepping up the rice-identification project, which will prevent the adulteration of hybrid seeds used by farmers.

According to Ilaga, the Bureau of Plant Industry will use the output of the project for regulatory purposes, seed certification and accreditation.

Aside from coming up with superior rice variety, the DA-BPO is also into rice multiproduct recovery process.