[searcabic] Latest news postings on biotechnology, 13 March 2009

[SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center]

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*Posted 13 March 2009*

PHILIPPINES
1-DUPONT PARTNERS WITH IRRI TO BOOST RICE YIELD
2-MORE BIOTECH KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO BOOST FOOD SECURITY
3-THREE MORE BIOTECH CROPS TO HIT MARKET IN 2012–PLANT SCIENTIST

KOREA
4-ASA WELCOMES SOUTH KOREA APPROVALS

CUBA
5-CUBA PLANTS FIRST GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN CROPS

MEXICO
6-MEXICO ALLOWS GM CORN FOR EXPERIMENTS

GLOBAL
7-WORLD LAGS IN BREEDING CLIMATE-PROOF CROPS


*1-DUPONT PARTNERS WITH IRRI TO BOOST RICE YIELD*
07-March-2009 Manila Bulletin <http://www.mb.com.ph/node/198059>

Los Baños, Laguna – DuPont and the International Rice Research Institute
(IRRI) announced a partnership to boost rice yields. The Scientific Know-How
and Exchange Program (SKEP) establishes a new model for public-private
sector collaboration that can benefit farmers and consumers while
stimulating commercial innovation.

“This innovative and novel partnership will enable the leading public
research institution in rice breeding and genetics to collaborate with the
global leader in advanced plant genetics, breeding and product development
to increase global rice productivity,” said William S. Niebur, vice
president-DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development. “By partnering with
IRRI to strengthen and accelerate hybrid breeding efforts, we will enhance
commercialization of higher-yielding hybrids in Asia to help meet global
demand.”

The goal of the collaboration is to increase the rate of yield gains and to
boost the quality and diversity of hybrid rice. Collaborating scientists
will further develop the understanding of hybrid vigor in rice and will work
to develop hybrids with better resistance to brown planthopper, a key insect
pest. Aspects of this work will be shared publicly and will contribute to
making better advanced breeding lines and hybrids available to rice breeders
and farmers in Asia. The project will complement the IRRI-led Hybrid Rice
Research and Development Consortium.

“Yield growth rates have slowed to less than 1 percent per year since 2000.
If this trend is not reversed soon, future rice supplies will tighten and
prices will rise,” said Achim Dobermann, IRRI deputy director for research.
“A turnaround can only come through accelerated investment in rice research,
including new, innovative public-private partnerships such as this one
between IRRI and DuPont.”

The new program also establishes a scholarship program to support continued
interest in agricultural research. DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred will fund
a doctorate scholarship to educate a new generation of highly qualified rice
scientists for the public and private sectors in Asia.

Both partners will benefit from SKEP through sharing facilities and
germplasm as well as through interaction among scientists. The research
collaboration builds on the strengths of both partners. IRRI has a large and
diverse germplasm pool for hybrid development. Pioneer, on the other hand,
will provide critical capabilities for molecular analysis, expertise in
developing commercial-scale breeding strategy, and field locations for wider
testing of IRRI and Pioneer hybrids.

IRRI is the world’s leading rice research and training center. Based in Los
Baños, Laguna, it is an autonomous, nonprofit institution focused on
improving the well-being of present and future generation of rice farmers
and consumers, particularly those with low incomes, while preserving natural
resources. IRRI is one of 15 centers supported, in part, by members of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and a
range of other funding agencies.

On the other hand, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, is the world’s
leading source of customized solutions for farmers, livestock producers and
grain and oilseed processors. With headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer
provides access to advanced plant genetics in nearly 70 countries.

*------------------------------------------------------------*
*2-MORE BIOTECH KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO BOOST FOOD SECURITY *
by Lorna M. Calumpang, KMU-SEARCA
04-March-2009 SEARCA News
Release<http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/04.html>

March 3 – Eighteen participants from 10 BIC-ISAAA1 networks convened
together in the Philippines for the Annual BIC Network Meeting.

Philippine host led by Dr. Randy Hautea, Global Coordinator, Southeast Asian
Center Director of ISAAA opened the meeting by challenging the participants
to stir ISAAA knowledge centers, popularly known as Biotechnology
Information Centers (BICs) to stir a "better balance of acceptance and
adoption of biotech crops" in their respective countries. This can be done
by making biotech knowledge easily accessible to various sectors of society,
from policy to farmer clients.

In various parts of the world, biotech contributes to increasing food supply
and making food more affordable with reduced stress and pollution to the
environment. The BICs would be vital in influencing more biotech acceptance
and adoption, and ultimately boost food production and security in every
country where they operate.

Participants came from different countries hosting BIC including Vietnam,
Thailand, China, Malaysia, Egypt, Kenya, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and
Philippines. The said meeting will last until March 5, 2009.

___________
*1Biotechnology Information Center - International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. In the Philippines, BIC is hosted
by SEARCA.*

*------------------------------------------------------------*
*3-THREE MORE BIOTECH CROPS TO HIT MARKET IN 2012–PLANT SCIENTIST*
by Manuel T. Cayon / Reporter
26-February-2009
BusinessMirror<http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6620:three-more-biotech-crops-to-hit-market-in-2012plant-scientist&catid=53:agri-commodities>

DAVAO CITY—Three modified crops, including rice, resistant to common pests
will hit the domestic market in the next three years.

Other biotech crops are being tested in the Mindanao campus of the
University of the Philippines (UP).

“These are the things that we can expect in the field of biotechnology in
the Philippines,” said Dr. Eufemio Rasco, a Cornell University-schooled
plant breeder, in a presentation before agriculture scientists and experts
and students at UP Mindanao here.

Rasco foresees the Philippines in a leading role in the application of
traditional biotechnology using new materials. He said the domestic market
would see the commercial production of a variety of Khak Nuan papaya,
genetically modified (GM) to resist the common pest ringspot, as well as an
eggplant variety modified to resist fruit and shoot borers, and the GM rice
called Golden Rice.

He said the modified crops would add to the four already in the market, the
controversial Bt corn, soybeans, cotton and canola.

“We can expect these three modified products to be commercially produced in
the next three years,” said Rasco, a professor of plant breeding at UP
Mindanao.

He said the private sector is “also talking about its own multiple stacked
genes in corn, about eight of them,” despite the controversy generated by
its well-publicized experiments in Tampakan, South Cotabato, in 2002.

In UP here, Rasco has led the field experiments in sago, which has multiple
uses in food production, and the pitcher plant, eyed mainly for its
ornamental use. He said the experiments have been done in the last 12 years.

>From sago, a kind of palm, starch could be derived as flour substitute in
baking and other industrial uses, and lactic acid. The pitcher plant,
growing well in the northern hinterland of this city, has its leaves forming
like a pitcher.

He said he is also experimenting on a plant called nepenthes, which exhibits
the unique characteristic of being a cross between a plant and an animal.
“It grows like other plants would but it also feeds on other plants, a
different kind of ‘plant-animal’ hybrid,” he said.

The plant could become a new platform for genetic engineering. “We may
hijack its own sap to determine why it eats on other plants, while growing
as a plant,” Rasco explained.

Nepenthes is an ornamental plant, “and biotechnology could help save this
plant—endemic in the Philippines—from extinction.”

“Yes, this is an endangered species,” he said.

“These are our achievements in plant biotechnology: seed propagation media,
hydropriming biology of flowering and seed production, in-vitro cutting
propagation, callus and regeneration, plant growing media, acclimatization,
selling of in-vitro seedlings and selling of clones,” he added.

Contrary to common perceptions, however, “what we are using here in the
Philippines is still the traditional kind of biotechnology, but we are using
new materials,” Rasco added.

“It’s an impression that we are using modern biotechnology,” he said.

In developed economies, scientists use gene-splicing, or genetic engineering
and protoplast fusion, or, “in general, any technique that forces unnatural
or horizontal DNA transfer.”

Although modern technology also “uses DNA markers to establish paternity,
solve crimes and diagnose diseases, plant breeding and studying evolution
still [are a] part of traditional biotechnology,” according to Rasco.

“Currently, traditional biotechnology dominates, contrary to what is being
impressed on the public,” Rasco explained. “Application of modern
biotechnology is still limited; in a crop agriculture, for instance, out of
about 250,000 plant species, only four major crops were subject to genetic
modification: corn, cotton, soybeans and canola.”

He said current uses of traditional biotechnology are in food processing and
production, biomedical applications such as drugs and vaccines, and in
industrial applications such as cleaning agents.

“The oldest is food processing and food production, and, would you believe,
wine is the first product and the microorganisms are the first workhorses,”
he added.

“Mind you, but we can be leaders in the world of traditional biotechnology
using new materials,” he said. “We can only be followers in modern
biotechnology.”

*------------------------------------------------------------*
*4-ASA WELCOMES SOUTH KOREA APPROVALS*
By Forrest Laws
06-March-2009 The Southeast Farm
Press<http://southeastfarmpress.com/soybeans/korea-biotech-0306/>

Government regulatory agencies in South Korea have given approval to imports
of two new biotech-enhanced soybean varieties – Roundup Ready 2 Yield from
Monsanto and LibertyLink from Bayer CropScience – from the United States.

The approvals appear to remove some of the last remaining hurdles for the
export and, thus, the commercialization of the two new herbicide-tolerant or
resistant weed control technologies for the 2009 season, according to the
American Soybean Association.

“The American Soybean Association recognizes the efforts of South Korean
regulators to move forward with authorizations for these new soybean
varieties,” said ASA President Johnny Dodson, a producer from Halls, Tenn.
“These approvals are critical to U.S. soybean growers and to our soybean and
soybean product customers in South Korea.”

The Roundup Ready 2 Yield Soybean received food safety approval from the
Korean Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 27. The approval from KFDA,
along with the environmental safety authorization received from the Rural
Development Administration on Jan. 19, completes a two-year regulatory
review process in Korea.

With those and other previous obtained approvals, there are no longer any
requirements for planting and movement stewardship restrictions on soybeans
with the Roundup Ready 2 Yield trait in the United States.

LibertyLink Soybeans also reached another milestone in South Korea with the
approval by RDA on Feb. 25. The LibertyLink Soybean application now moves
into the final stages for approval under KFDA. This will include a 20-day
public comment period.

“We are optimistic this latest development indicates full import approval is
likely very soon," Dodson said. (A spokesman for Bayer CropScience said the
company expects to receive the final clearance from KFDA no later than the
beginning of the U.S. harvest season.)

LibertyLink Soybeans are fully approved for food, feed and cultivation in
the United States and Canada and approved for import into Australia, China,
the European Union, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, South
Africa and Taiwan.

“ASA has worked in partnership with Bayer CropScience and Monsanto to
educate foreign buyers on biotechnology and for regulatory clearances of
these new traits,” said Dodson, who became ASA president last fall.

ASA has also worked closely with the South Korean industry for approval of
these new soybean traits. In January, ASA Board member and ASA Biotech
Working Group member Ron Moore traveled to South Korea to join American
Soybean Association International Marketing South Korea Director Say Young
Jo for meetings with South Korean industry representatives.

Although U.S. processors continue to purchase a large quantity of U.S.
soybeans annually, the export market remains huge for U.S. soybean
producers.

The approval of the Monsanto Roundup Ready 2 Yield varieties by the European
Union in December provided U.S. soybean producers with continued market
access to nearly half a billion consumers living in the 27 EU member states/

The European Union-27 collectively purchased 143 million bushels of U.S.
soybeans and 476,000 metric tons of U.S. soybean meal with a collective
value of over $1.8 billion during Marketing Year 2007-08, making it the
second largest buyer of U.S. soybeans following China.

“The EU purchased 8 percent more U.S. soybeans this year compared to last
year,” Dodson said. "This would not have been possible without ASA’s
biotechnology education and outreach programs, and its work with biotech
companies to obtain international clearances in major export markets before
new biotech soybean varieties are launched.

“Biotechnology-improved soybeans are just one of the key technologies that
will help U.S. farmers meet the world’s growing demand for food, feed and
fuel made from U.S. soybeans," Dodson said. “Timely overseas regulatory
approvals are critical because growers have rapidly adopted new
biotech-enhanced seed varieties as soon as they became available.”

LibertyLink soybeans from Bayer CropScience received final approval from the
European Commission for importation into the European Union (EU) for food
and feed use in September, according to ASA.

*------------------------------------------------------------*
*5-CUBA PLANTS FIRST GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN CROPS*
by Juventud Rebelde
03-March-2009 Cuba News
Headlines<http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2009/03/03/16080/cuba_plants_first_genetically_modified_corn_crops.html>

Genetically modified corn is being grown for the first time in Cuba as a
part of an experiment aimed at obtaining high-yield varieties

Three hectares of genetically modified corn have been planted as part of an
experiment on transgenic corn FR-Bt1 carried out by the National Center for
Genetic Engeneering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

The crop is being grown in Yaguajay, Sancti Spiritus by the Valle de Caonao
company. A specialist from the CIGB, Raúl Armas, told JR that the Cuban
variety has been modified to be more resistance to the Palomilla del maíz,
the principal pest that affects this crop, and to increase the crop’s
tolerance to pesticides.

The research, conducted according to the strict biological and environmental
security norms set in Cuba, sets out to produce high-yield varieties for
human and animal consumption.

The project aims to substitute imports and is being implemented in
coordination with local agricultural and environmental groups. Some 60
hectares are scheduled to be planted in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas,
Ciego de Ávila and Santiago de Cuba.

This variety of transgenic corn was first planted in the Valle de Caonao at
the end of last December. The variety features no significant modifications
to the plant or cob, maintaining its nutritional value and flavour. The
first harvest is scheduled for late March or early April.

This genetically modified crop needs little maintenance requiring only
watering and spraying with herbicides. Although these first hectares were
planted by hand, farm machinery will be used on larger farms.

Armas noted that the first transgenic crops worldwide were planted in 1994;
by 2008, some 120 million hectares were covered by genetically modified
crops, especially soya beans, corn and cotton. In the case of corn, 22
percent of the worldwide harvest is of genetically engineering verities,
principally in the United States, Canada, Argentine and South Africa —the
major corn-producing countries. Other experiments on transgenic sweet
potatoe, tomatoes, potatoes and rice are being conducted across Cuba.

*------------------------------------------------------------*
*6-MEXICO ALLOWS GM CORN FOR EXPERIMENTS*
06-March-2009 The Associated Press via Denver
Post<http://www.bic.searca.org/e-news/The%20Associated%20Press%20via%20Denver%20Post>

MEXICO CITY—Mexico is changing its laws to allow the planting of genetically
modified corn for experimental reasons.

Growers will now be able to apply for government permission for experimental
plots. The law published Friday in the official registry does not specify
limits on how much GM corn can be planted or where.

Mexico is the birthplace of corn and had banned GM varieties completely
until now.

Environmental groups oppose the measure, calling it the first step toward
widespread cultivation of GM corn.

Opponents warn that modified corn could contaminate fields and threaten the
crop's genetic diversity. Mexico has more than 200 varieties of corn.

The government has not said whether it plans a general legalization of GM
corn.


*------------------------------------------------------------*
*7-USAID RENEWS COMMITMENT FOR THE PROGRAM FOR BIOSAFETY SYSTEMS*
20-February-2009 SEARCA BIC News Release (Rochella Lapitan)

The Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS) has been conferred another five-year
funding support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
as the latter renewed its partnership with the International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI) for the PBS implementation, according to a press
release.

The PBS, an IFPRI-managed program that supports development and
implementation of national biosafety systems in sub-Saharan Africa and
Southeast Asia, has established itself as a leading program in biosafety
capacity development during its first phase of implementation through a
variety of partner–driven activities and initiatives including training
workshops, competitive grants program, biosafety policy analysis and policy
development, and consultative guidance on biotechnology product development.

In the Philippines, PBS closely collaborates with the Departments of
Agriculture, and Science and Technology for biosafety policy development,
capacity building and regulatory decision-making. Likewise, it also partners
with the University of the Philippines for the implementation and management
of its work plan for Southeast Asia.

In its second phase, the PBS will continue to design and implement partner
country activities in close collaboration with in-country teams, partners
and collaborators to provide: 1) Regulatory and technical expertise; 2)
Scientific knowledge and product advisory services; 3) Policy analysis and
research-based policy advice; 4) Capacity building and skills development;
and 5) Facilitation of multi-stakeholder policy processes.

Further information can be viewed at IFPRI’s press release,
http://ifpriblog.org/2009/02/11/pbspressrelease.aspx or visit the website of
PBS at http://www.ifpri.org/pbs/pbs.asp

*------------------------------------------------------------*
*8-WORLD LAGS IN BREEDING CLIMATE-PROOF CROPS*
27-February-2009 Malaya <http://www.malaya.com.ph/feb27/agri1.htm>

OSLO - The world is running out of time to develop new seed varieties to
confront climate change and head off food shortages that could affect
billions of people, experts said.

Marking the first anniversary on Thursday of the opening of a "doomsday"
seed vault on the island of Spitsbergen in the Norwegian Arctic, they said
that people in Africa and Asia were most at risk from a lack of
climate-proof crops.

"It’s a question of urgency," Cary Fowler, head of the Global Crop Diversity
Trust, told Reuters by telephone with other experts from Spitsbergen. He
said governments needed to invest more in breeding new seeds.

"Unlike the bank that needs to be bailed out this week, this problem is
going to be an emergency 20 years from now. But by then it will be too late"
he said.

The vault, blasted from icy rock 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole,
opened on February 26, 2008 and has doubled its holdings to 200 million
seeds in the past year, representing 400,000 varieties. It is run by the
trust, the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center in
Sweden.

"My opinion is that not enough is being done" to develop new varieties of
crops, said David Lobell, an expert in food security and the environment at
Stanford University.

There was work under way to help develop crops that can withstand drought
and floods but exposure to very high temperatures had not been a focus
historically, he said.

Priorities could be southern Africa to help people heavily dependent on
crops such as maize in a region likely to be hard hit by climate change, he
said. Similarly, India and Pakistan faced disruptions to crops such as rice
and wheat.

"We need some tremendous advances," said David Battisti, an atmospheric
sciences professor at the University of Washington.

"The whole world will be stressed at the same time" because of global
warming, he said. Crops can take a decade to breed and test, with no
guarantee of success.

Battisti authored a study in the journal Science last month that predicted
that climate change would disrupt growth by both crops and livestock and
cause serious food shortages for half the world’s population.

Crops cannot simply be moved to new areas as the climate warms because
soils, pests, insect pollinators, daylight hours and other factors differ
even if temperatures seem suitable.

"It’s not going to be enough to create heat-tolerant maize," Fowler said.
"We are going to need new varieties appropriate in Ghana, in South Africa,
or Brazil. You need crops adapted all over the place." – *Reuters*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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*We don’t have accurate science to be able to say the cut shall be done at
2% per annum...* <http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/06.html>

*SEARCA to conduct back-to-back activities highlighting fisheries
*<http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/05.html>

*More biotech knowledge sharing to boost food
security*<http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/04.html>

*---------------------------------------------------------*
*Download available paper and/or presentation handouts of some notable
speakers presented at SEARCA Agriculture and Development Series. CLICK HERE.
* <http://www.searca.org/web/adss/2008/index.html>

*Understanding Impact Assessment: The Biofuel Challenge A Workshop for Media
Practitioners* <http://www.searca.org/web/training/courses/2009/biofuel_ia/>
*SEARCA, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
26-27 March 2009*

*5th Executive Forum on NRM: Environmental Economics for
Decision-making*<http://www.searca.org/web/training/courses/2009/environmental_economics/>
*SEARCA, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
23 - 27 March 2009
Course Brochure | Flyer | Registration Form | Expression of Interest |
Special Rates* <http://www.bic.searca.org/>

*Measures of Hope and Promises Delivered: An International Conference on
Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact Assessment of Genetically Modified
(GM) Crops* <http://www.bic.searca.org/>
*Bangkok, Thailand
21 - 22 April 2009*

*-------------------------------------------------------------*
*CALL FOR APPLICATION

Department of Agriculture, Philippines: Biotechnology Research Fellowship
Program
8 Slots Available for Senior Scientist Research Grant and Research
Fellowship Grant
View details here.

BIOTEC, Thailand: Human Resource Development Program in Biotechnology 2009
Deadline for application: 15 March
2009*<http://www.bic.searca.org/docs/DAfellobrochure.pdf>
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