Director Alicia Ilaga of the Biotech Program Office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) has called for more incentives for biotechnologists who have developed high-yielding and pest-resistant crops.

Ilaga said researchers deserve to be rewarded for their scientific work and noted that this is consistent with the findings of a study done by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in cooperation with Sikap/Strife Foundation.

She added that these researchers have been working with the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the development of agricultural biotechnology products and their protection and commercialization.

According to the study, majority of the respondents believe that research and development (R&D) results should be commercialized and made public.

A few, however, expressed fear on the effects of biotech products on health and environment.

The researchers who answered in the affirmative say that private commercialization would solve the country's problem on food insufficiency, unemployment and poverty, and would provide faster dissemination of products/technologies to the public.

Moreover, they agree that biotech products would be useless if not commercialized. A small group, however, fears the negative effects of biotechnology on health and the environment. They also express concern about public sector R&D institutions taking profit from products that were initially funded by the state.

Intellectual property rights (IPR) also plays a key role to the planned commercialization. The scientists express concern on how the rights of the researchers and developers would be protected if their products were commercialized.