Philippines to plant more transgenic corn despite economic woes

 

 

The cultivation of genetically modified corn in the Philippines is expected to increase this year despite the global economic crisis, an industry group said Tuesday (February 17).

 

Last year, genetically modified corn was planted on 350,000 hectares of farmlands against 315,000 hectares the year ago, said Randy Hautea, global coordinator of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.

 

The area accounted for about a third of the country's total farmlands on which yellow corn was planted, Hautea said.

 

Half of the area was planted with Bt corn, which is resistant to the Asian corn borer which damages up to 80 percent of infested corn farmlands, while the other half was planted with stacked trait corn, which is resistant to corn borer and herbicides.

 

Hautea said the economic benefit of using transgenic seeds will continue to encourage farmers.

 

According to him, the additional net farm income generated from the use of transgenic corn seeds ranged between PHP8,000 (US$167) and PHP10,000 (US$203) per hectare.

 

Transgenic seeds cost PHP6,000 to PHP6,500 per hectare, double that of regular seeds.

 

"As long as farmers are satisfied with the economic gain, they will continue to use Bt corn," Hautea said, adding the retention rate among Bt corn farmers exceeds 90 percent.

 

The average Bt corn yield is around 6 tonnes a hectare, compared with 3.0 to 3.5 tonnes from regular varieties.

 

The country's agriculture department has set a corn output target of 7.8 million tonnes for 2009, versus last year's output of 6.93 million tonnes.

 

Corn is the main ingredient in animal feed.

 

US$1 = PhP47.85 (Feb 17)