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BIOTECHNOLOGY experts have called on the government to
employ their expertise to solve problems facing the
Philippines, such as lack of suitable biofuel feedstock.
They said resolving this will spare foodcrops from being
used and address drought-related issues in the
aquaculture and agriculture.
Right
now, available biofuel feedstock are coconuts, corn and
sugar cane, all critical to the food-supply security of
the country.
Among
others, the biotech scientists say the government should
intensively support cultivation of substitutes, such as
the jatropha curcas plant and some other nonfood plants.
The
current near drought in agricultural areas—already the
Ilocos Region has been declared a calamity area for lack
of water—also underscored their suggestion for the
government to commit enough resources for research in
agriculture to find and develop drought-resistant crops;
and, in aquaculture, saline-tolerant fish to be able to
transfer freshwater farmed fish to coastal seawaters and
save precious water for crop irrigation.
In
response, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the
government is already considering jatropha, known
locally as tuba-tuba, for the production of biodiesel
because this plant can be planted even in hostile
terrain and the most inhospitable soil.
He added
they may devote some of the agency’s vast tracts which
are intended for massive tree-planting to the planting
of jatropha.
The
government is also trying to identify which areas could
be developed for the massive production of genetically
modified sugar cane, cassava, sweet sorghum, Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) corn, and other genetically modified
crops that yield between 9-percent and 18- percent
alcohol, which can be used for the production of ethanol
additive for gasoline.
Scientists from the Philippine Rice Research Institute
and the Agriculture Technology Institute concerned with
the drought have also called on the Arroyo
administration to develop superior crops—through the
gene-splicing technique—that are drought-resistant, as
well as crop varieties that can survive severe flooding.
Rafael
Guerrero of the Philippine Council for Marine and
Aquatic Resources Research and Development, who had
warned that the dry spell may affect in-land fishponds
and fish cages, recommended the use of
high-saline-tolerant fish variety developed specifically
for such weather condition.
He said
for brackish fish cages, high saline-tolerant fish,
especially tilapia, should be used to minimize loss as a
consequence of the dry spell.
Advocates of biotechnology said it is during this
crucial times that the wonders of biotechnology work to
offer government a better solution to the country’s
woes, and farmers a better alternative to increase
production. |
