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The Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (Searice)
is a regional development NGO working with farming communities on
conservation, development and sustainable use of plant genetic
resource in Bhutan, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines
in collaboration with civil society organizations, government
agencies and academic research institutions. Searice is also doing
policy advocacy and campaign work on seed-related issues such as raw
and emerging technologies (i.e. hybrid rice, genetic engineering in
food and agriculture), application of intellectual property rights
on seeds and advocacies for promotion and realization of farmers’
rights to seeds. Recently, I got hold of their study on Bt corn
adoption in three corn-producing provinces in the Philippines in
2006.
One of the claims of the International Service
for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAA), an
international GMO lobby group, is that the Philippines is one of the
“biotech mega-countries” of the world, ranking among the largest
hectarage of GM crops planted, specifically genetically modified
maize amounting to 200,000 hectares in 2006. Searice disputes this
claim because according to the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau
of Plant Industry (DA-BPI), seed companies’ combined sales targets
to be planted with Bt corn amounted to only 68,000, hectares which
is way below the area previously mentioned. Cumulatively, the
companies’ sales targets from 2003 to 2006 totalled 188,669
hectares which appears to be a more approximate figure to the
200,000 hectares claimed by ISAAA for 2006 alone. Searice contends
that this information misleads and deceives the public to make it
appear that Bt corn is successfully being adopted by farmers on a
very large scale and that there is demand for Bt corn across the
country. Unfortunately, the DA-BPI said that companies only submit
sales target reports and not their actual sales of Bt corn. There is
no means to verify how many hectares are actually planted to Bt
corn.
Searice conducted a study in 2006 mainly to find
out the farmers’ adoption and assessment of Bt corn. The study
covered three of the top corn-producing provinces in the country:
Isabela, Bukidnon and North Cotabato. The results showed that only
25 farmers out of 790 respondents or a measly 3.16 percent planted
Bt corn during the main cropping season of 2006 amounting to only 3
percent of all the respondents’ total corn area. The study also
found out that prior to the first cropping season, few farmers who
tried using Bt corn did not repeat planting its seeds. The most
common reason given by the farmers for non-repetition is that Bt
corn seeds are more expensive than non-Bt corn seeds. Other reasons
given were: a) grains from Bt corn had the same market price as that
of non-Bt corn grains; b) Bt plants were prone to aphids; c) corn
borer infestation was still present; d) yields were poor; and e)
kernels tended to be shrunken in size. These responses dispute the
claimed advantage of Bt corn over other corn varieties and the fact
that farmers did not repeat planting showed the failure of the
varieties.
On the other hand, the majority of corn farmers
who never planted Bt corn cited the following reasons for not
adopting Bt corn: a) Bt corn seeds were more expensive; b) no
information received about Bt corn; c) not convinced of the yield
advantage of Bt corn over non-Bt corn seeds; d) Bt corn perceived
harmful to human health; and e) corn borer is manageable through
proper timing of planting without resorting to Bt corn. The
commercialization of Bt corn was supposed to address the problem of
corn borer infestation which the proponents claimed is the major
problem among corn farmers. Contrary to this, the Searice study
showed that the more important problems for farmers are rat
infestation, stalk rot, aphids, grasshopper and leaf sheathblight.
Moreover, farmers reported that they have other means of controlling
corn borer without resorting to Bt corn. The most effective method
is simply for farmers to plant corn during the main cropping season
when corn borer infestation is minimal. For farmers, Bt corn is,
therefore, unnecessary as manifested by farmers’ non-adoption of
the technology. More next week.
director@haribon.org.ph
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