Filipino Farmers Reject Adoption of Bt Corn

Filipino farmers reject adoption of Bt corn
Thursday, February 14, 2008
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/feb/14/yehey/metro/20080214met5.html



FILIPINO farmers do not favor planting the Bacillus thuri ngiensis (Bt) corn after trying it for the first time during the period of 2003 to 2006, the Southeast Asia Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (Searice) said on Wednesday.

“The overwhelming majority chose to plant non-Bt corn varieties, a trend that amounts to market rejection of Bt corn technology,” said Agnes Lintao, Searice Policy Officer who spearheaded the research.

Lintao belied the claim of International Service for the Acquisition of Agricultural Biotech Application (ISAAA) that 200,000 hectares of corn production areas nationwide were planted with Bt corn in 2006.

Out of the 790 farmers surveyed in three provinces, only 3 percent planted Bt corn during the first cropping season of May to September of 2006. The same study also showed that none of the respondents replanted Bt corn after using it for the first time.

“Most of the farmers interviewed in the three provinces were not convinced of its claimed benefits of higher yields and pest resistance,” said Lintao.

The group’s survey showed that in Isabela, the highest corn-producing province, a mere 6 percent of farmer-respondents planted Bt corn.

In Bukidnon, the second highest corn-producing province, there was an adoption rate of less than 1 percent. In North Cotabato, the fourth largest corn-producing province, there was barely 3 percent farmers’ adoption, the survey showed.

“High cost was the top most reason cited by the farmers for their non-adoption including those who chose not to repeat the planting of Bt corn during the period 2003 to 2006. Despite the hype mounted for this biotech crop, farmers remain unconvinced,” Lintao said.

Lintao also said that ISAAA has been misleading the public about the real status of Bt corn adoption in the country, and even called the Philippines as one of the “mega biotech” countries in the world where Bt corn is being widely used.

“Their figure is highly misleading because this is not even the actual sales they achieved. There is no way to verify the actual volume of sales of Bt corn seeds since the DA-BPI [Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry] does not require the companies to produce this report. However, DA-BPI never tried to correct the erroneous and misleading use of data,” Lintao said.

ISAAA is set to present the Philippines’ successful adoption of genetically modified corn in Brussels today.
--Ira Karen Apanay