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It is
only when farmers realize that agriculture is an
enterprise from which they can derive larger incomes
that they are encouraged to take the plunge to
entrepreneurship.
This
much was observed by officials of Occidental Mindoro who
saw the potential of their farmers being key players in
local and regional agricultural trade since their town
is a major food producer.
Occidental Mindoro actually boasts of a high 9.4-percent
annual economic growth among the provinces in Mimaropa
(Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon
and Palawan).
Mayor
Sonia Pablo of Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, who has taken
the role of champion of biotechnology advocacy was
instrumental in launching the Biotechnology Information
and Organization Network (BIONet)- BIOCommerce in her
province.
Pablo
said the establishment of the BIONet Resource Center in
their province is a great opportunity not only for
farmers, but also for all inhabitants of the province.
“It pays
to have a resource center where you can access new
information like biotechnology,” she said.
One
perfect example of the importance of having access to
information is the case of Mayor Vincent Festin of San
Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Festin is actually a convert
to biotechnology, having been skeptical about its
benefits, and was surprised even more by what he
initially thought was meddling or modifications of God’s
creations.
It was
when he participated in a Biotechnology Seminar for the
Local Government Units that he realized that
biotechnology had been in existence for thousands of
years, starting with beer making, winemaking and bread
making.
Surely,
it did not start with the discovery of the laws of
genetics by Austrian Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel.
“Our
town’s [economic] growth rate will surely get better
than what we have now because of the presence of the
BIONet-BIOCommerce Center at the heart of our town,” he
said.
The
BIONet-BIOCommerce Center in San Jose aims to help
farmers achieve a better quality of life by helping them
increase their profit through biotechnology. Some of the
organization’s target products are corn, like
genetically modified Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and
Round-up Ready corn and malunggay, which has become a
profitable venture for residents.
Not only
will BIONet provide information on the latest
information on biotechnology. It will also link up the
province with other BIONet Centers in the country, like
those in Tarlac and Butuan, to provide a national
database on agricultural biotechnology information.
BIONet
aims to serve as a link between the farmers and the
private sector, which is their ready market. (Biolife
News Service) |
