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</font></font><a class="date"><em><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="2">Posted 13 March 2009</font></em></a><br><br><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2">PHILIPPINES</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>
1-DUPONT PARTNERS WITH IRRI TO BOOST RICE YIELD <br>2-MORE BIOTECH KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO BOOST FOOD SECURITY <br>3-THREE MORE BIOTECH CROPS TO HIT MARKET IN 2012–PLANT SCIENTIST <br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2">KOREA</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>
4-ASA WELCOMES SOUTH KOREA APPROVALS <br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2">CUBA</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>5-CUBA PLANTS FIRST GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN CROPS <br>
<br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2">MEXICO</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>6-MEXICO ALLOWS GM CORN FOR EXPERIMENTS <br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2">GLOBAL</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>
7-WORLD LAGS IN BREEDING CLIMATE-PROOF CROPS <br><br></font></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr>
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<div align="left"><br><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>1-DUPONT PARTNERS WITH IRRI TO BOOST RICE YIELD</strong><br>07-March-2009 </font></font><a href="http://www.mb.com.ph/node/198059" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Manila Bulletin</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">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.<br>
<br>“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.”<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>“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.”<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>2-MORE BIOTECH KNOWLEDGE SHARING TO BOOST FOOD SECURITY </strong><br>by Lorna M. Calumpang, KMU-SEARCA <br>04-March-2009 </font><a href="http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/04.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">SEARCA News Release</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>
<br>March 3 – Eighteen participants from 10 BIC-ISAAA<sup>1</sup> networks convened together in the Philippines for the Annual BIC Network Meeting. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>___________<br>
<em><sup>1</sup>Biotechnology Information Center - International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. In the Philippines, BIC is hosted by SEARCA.</em><br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br>
<strong>3-THREE MORE BIOTECH CROPS TO HIT MARKET IN 2012–PLANT SCIENTIST</strong><br>by Manuel T. Cayon / Reporter<br>26-February-2009 </font><a href="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" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">BusinessMirror</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">DAVAO CITY—Three modified crops, including rice, resistant to common pests will hit the domestic market in the next three years.<br><br>Other biotech crops are being tested in the Mindanao campus of the University of the Philippines (UP).<br>
<br>“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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>He said the modified crops would add to the four already in the market, the controversial Bt corn, soybeans, cotton and canola.<br><br>“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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>Nepenthes is an ornamental plant, “and biotechnology could help save this plant—endemic in the Philippines—from extinction.” <br>
<br>“Yes, this is an endangered species,” he said.<br><br>“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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>“It’s an impression that we are using modern biotechnology,” he said. <br>
<br>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.”<br><br>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.<br>
<br>“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.”<br>
<br>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.<br><br>“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.<br>
<br>“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.”<br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br>
<strong>4-ASA WELCOMES SOUTH KOREA APPROVALS</strong><br>By Forrest Laws<br>06-March-2009 </font><a href="http://southeastfarmpress.com/soybeans/korea-biotech-0306/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">The Southeast Farm Press</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>“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.”<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>“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.)<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>“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.<br><br>
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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>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/<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>“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.<br>
<br>“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.”<br>
<br>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.<br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br>
<strong>5-CUBA PLANTS FIRST GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN CROPS</strong><br>by Juventud Rebelde<br>03-March-2009 </font><a href="http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2009/03/03/16080/cuba_plants_first_genetically_modified_corn_crops.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Cuba News Headlines</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Genetically modified corn is being grown for the first time in Cuba as a part of an experiment aimed at obtaining high-yield varieties <br><br>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).<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>6-MEXICO ALLOWS GM CORN FOR EXPERIMENTS</strong><br>06-March-2009 </font><a href="http://www.bic.searca.org/e-news/The%20Associated%20Press%20via%20Denver%20Post" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">The Associated Press via Denver Post</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">MEXICO CITY—Mexico is changing its laws to allow the planting of genetically modified corn for experimental reasons. <br><br>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. <br>
<br>Mexico is the birthplace of corn and had banned GM varieties completely until now. <br><br>Environmental groups oppose the measure, calling it the first step toward widespread cultivation of GM corn. <br><br>Opponents warn that modified corn could contaminate fields and threaten the crop's genetic diversity. Mexico has more than 200 varieties of corn. <br>
<br>The government has not said whether it plans a general legalization of GM corn.<br><br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>7-USAID RENEWS COMMITMENT FOR THE PROGRAM FOR BIOSAFETY SYSTEMS</strong><br>
20-February-2009 SEARCA BIC News Release (Rochella Lapitan)<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>Further information can be viewed at IFPRI’s press release, </font><a href="http://ifpriblog.org/2009/02/11/pbspressrelease.aspx" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">http://ifpriblog.org/2009/02/11/pbspressrelease.aspx</font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> or visit the website of PBS at </font><a href="http://www.ifpri.org/pbs/pbs.asp" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.ifpri.org/pbs/pbs.asp</font></a><br>
<br><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>8-WORLD LAGS IN BREEDING CLIMATE-PROOF CROPS</strong><br>27-February-2009 </font></font><a href="http://www.malaya.com.ph/feb27/agri1.htm" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Malaya</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>"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.<br>
<br>"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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>"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.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>"We need some tremendous advances," said David Battisti, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington.<br><br>"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.<br>
<br>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>"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." – <em><strong>Reuters</strong></em><br>
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<td valign="top" width="184" bgcolor="#fcfdce"><br><a class="events" href="http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/06.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>We don’t have accurate science to be able to say the cut shall be done at 2% per annum...</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1"> <br>
<br></font><a class="events" href="http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/05.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>SEARCA to conduct back-to-back activities highlighting fisheries </strong></font></a><br>
<br><a class="events" href="http://www.searca.org/web/news/2009/mar/web/04.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>More biotech knowledge sharing to boost food security</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1"> <br>
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</font><a class="events" href="http://www.searca.org/web/adss/2008/index.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>Download available paper and/or presentation handouts of some notable speakers presented at SEARCA Agriculture and Development Series. CLICK HERE.</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1"> <br>
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<td valign="top" width="183" bgcolor="#eeffa8"><br><a class="events" href="http://www.searca.org/web/training/courses/2009/biofuel_ia/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#ff6600" size="1"><strong>Understanding Impact Assessment: The Biofuel Challenge A Workshop for Media Practitioners</strong></font></a><br>
<a class="events_details"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="1"><strong>SEARCA, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines<br>26-27 March 2009</strong></font></a><br><br><a class="events" href="http://www.searca.org/web/training/courses/2009/environmental_economics/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>5th Executive Forum on NRM: Environmental Economics for Decision-making</strong></font></a><br>
<a class="events_details" href="http://www.bic.searca.org/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="1"><strong>SEARCA, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines<br>23 - 27 March 2009<br>Course Brochure | Flyer | Registration Form | Expression of Interest | Special Rates</strong></font></a><br>
<br><a class="events" href="http://www.bic.searca.org/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#ff6600" size="1"><strong>Measures of Hope and Promises Delivered: An International Conference on Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact Assessment of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops</strong></font></a><br>
<a class="events_details"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="1"><strong>Bangkok, Thailand<br>21 - 22 April 2009</strong></font></a><br><br><a class="events"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>-------------------------------------------------------------</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1"> <br>
</font><a class="events" href="http://www.bic.searca.org/docs/DAfellobrochure.pdf" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="1"><strong>CALL FOR APPLICATION <br><br>Department of Agriculture, Philippines: Biotechnology Research Fellowship Program<br>
8 Slots Available for Senior Scientist Research Grant and Research Fellowship Grant<br>View details here.<br><br>BIOTEC, Thailand: Human Resource Development Program in Biotechnology 2009<br>Deadline for application: 15 March 2009</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1"> <br>
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