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<td valign="top" width="478" height="205"><font color="#666666" size="1"><img height="28" src="http://www.bic.searca.org/e-news/images/inthenews.jpg" width="139"></font> <br><a class="date"><em><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#666666" size="2">Posted 19 April 2009</font></em></a><br>
<br><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>PHILIPPINES</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>1-BAR INTENSIFIES SUPPORT FOR AGRI BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH <br>
2-IRRADIATION MAKES FOOD ‘SALMONELLA’-FREE <br>3-GM RICE YIELDS 50% MORE HARVEST EVEN WITH LESS FERTILIZER AND WATER USE <br>4-BIOTECH CROPS' GLOBAL VALUE REACHES $7.5 BILLION <br>5-PCC PUTS UP P300-MILLION BIOTECH FACILITY <br>
6-A NEW LOOK AT BIOFUELS <br><br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>INDIA</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>7-Bt BRINJAL MAY BE RELEASED COMMERCIALLY BY YEAR-END <br>
<br></font><a class="country"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#336600" size="2"><strong>GLOBAL</strong></font></a><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> <br>8-THE WORLD MUST FEED ITS HUNGRY <br><br>
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<div align="left"><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>1-BAR INTENSIFIES SUPPORT FOR AGRI BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH</strong><br>by Marvyn N. Benaning<br>19-April-2009 </font></font><a href="http://mb.com.ph/articles/202880/bar-intensifies-support-agri-biotechnology-research" 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">Recognizing the benefits of biotechnology application in agriculture, the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR), in partnership with the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH) and selected state universities and colleges (SUCs), is intensifying its biotechnology R&D program giving specific attention to traditional and modern biotechnology.<br>
<br>The biotechnology program focuses on integrated processing to increase the value and competitiveness of traditional crops intended for local and world markets. This includes the production of natural ingredients with the application of traditional and modern technology and the creation of clusters of natural ingredients industries.<br>
<br>With the Philippines being rich in biodiversity, it can exploit and create new products and medicine for the growing global market.<br><br>In a recent pronouncement of BAR Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar, he noted how biotechnology application in agriculture is seen as an answer to issues in agricultural productivity and food security.<br>
<br>With such an initiative, BAR hopes to develop and promote the adoption of new production and postharvest technologies to increase productivity and profitability of selected agricultural commodities while minimizing the environmental impact of farming and fishery practices to effectively manage biodiversity, and help develop science-based policies.<br>
<br>The idea is to fast-track agricultural productivity that positively and directly increases farmers’ incomes, provides access to nutritious and safer food, and helps achieve a healthy environment.<br><br>Based at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), BIOTECH has been promoting agricultural biotechnology that improves the productivity of the industry in turning out products that cost less and are safer for family consumption while at the same time, contributes to a healthy environment.<br>
<br>According to Dr. Ida F. Dalmacio of BIOTECH, speculative fear of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and biotechnology has prevented people from understanding the real potentials and benefits of biotechnology application in agriculture.<br>
<br>Dalmacio also clarified that there is more to agribiotechnology than the GMOs and expounded on how biotechnology can be applied to agriculture.<br><br>“Biotechnology is the application of any technique that uses living organisms, or a part of it, to make or modify a product, to improve plants or animals or to develop substances for specific functions. If applied to agriculture, it simply means to use living organisms or part of it, to improve the productivity of crops, livestock and the fisheries,” she explained.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>2-IRRADIATION MAKES FOOD ‘SALMONELLA’-FREE</strong> <br>by Lyn Resurreccion / Science Editor <br>13-April-2009 </font><a href="http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/science/8635-irradiation-makes-food-salmonella-free-.html" 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">Salmonella contamination has been in the news lately in some peanut-butter and pistachio brands. First, peanut-butter brands from the US were reported contaminated. Later on, samples from two local brands were reported tainted. Now it’s pistachio nuts mainly from the US that are affected, although most of the brands were voluntarily recalled just as a precaution.<br>
<br>Salmonella bacteria are the most frequently reported cause of food-borne illness, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) web-site fact sheet said. To reduce salmonellosis or Salmonella infection, it said, a comprehensive farm-to-table approach to food safety is necessary. Farmers, industry, food inspectors, retailers, food-service workers and consumers are each critical links in the food-safety chain. <br>
<br>The Salmonella family includes more than 2,300 serotypes of bacteria which are one-celled organisms too small to be seen without a microscope. Two types, Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium, are the most common in the United States and account for half of all human infections. <br>
<br>Salmonella lives in the intestinal tract of humans and other animals, including birds. It is usually transmitted to humans by eating food contaminated with animal feces. <br><br>Being heat-sensitive, Salmonella present in raw meat and poultry could survive if the product is not cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature, the USDA said.<br>
<br>Salmonella can also cause salmonellosis through cross-contamination, wherein juices from raw meat or poultry come in contact with ready-to-eat foods, such as salads.<br><br>The bacteria have been known to cause illness for over 100 years. They were discovered by American scientist Dr. Daniel E. Salmon.<br>
<br>To prevent food from Salmonella contamination, the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) said the use of irradiation may be among interventions that may be used.<br><br>Zenaida de Guzman, head of PNRI’s biomedical research section and project leader of food-irradiation research and development project, said that in tandem with Good Manufacturing Practices and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points the use of irradiation in food may eliminate pathogenic microbes.<br>
<br>“We want the public to know that we use this technology [irradiation] to eliminate microbes, such as Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria in food,” de Guzman told the BusinessMirror in an interview.<br><br>De Guzman, however, was quick to say that the peanut butter and pistachio which were recently found or still suspected to be contaminated with Salmonella could no longer be irradiated by the PNRI.<br>
<br>She explained that only raw agricultural materials are irradiated, like the peanut in the peanut butter, or the raw pistachio, because the finished products have already passed a long process—from planting to harvesting, drying, processing, up to transporting, which might have caused the contamination, or that toxins might have already developed.<br>
<br>“Agricultural raw materials have many sources of microbial contamination, including water,” she noted.<br><br>Besides, she said, food irradiation observes certain protocols, wherein the raw food materials are irradiated immediately after they are dried after harvest to prevent the development of more microbes. She said if there is a big amount of microbes present, it might require a higher dose of irradiation that may affect the quality, taste or color of the produce. <br>
<br>However, she said Filipino food manufacturers should consider irradiation to make their products free from disease-causing bacteria.<br><br>Irradiation uses high-energy ionizing radiation, a PNRI flyer said, to reduce postharvest losses, disinfest fresh fruits and other agricultural products, extend shelf life of food and agricultural commodities, such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish and seafood, reduce microbes that cause spoilage and eliminate pathogenic microbes.<br>
<br>De Guzman explained that irradiation—which uses 300 Gray (Gy) to 1,000 Gy dose, depending on the product that will be irradiated—is safe for human and animal consumption because there is no radioactive residue left on the product.<br>
<br>“It is like putting the product under x-ray,” she noted.<br><br>The PNRI’s irradiation facility was set up as pilot-scale in 1984 and was upgraded to semicommercial scale in 2008. It could handle 2 tons of products per load. <br>
<br>It irradiates spices and dehydrated vegetables, such as ground black and white peppers, powders like cayenne, turmeric, onion, garlic, ginger, tamarind, chives and other condiments. <br><br>De Guzman added that there is a growing volume of herbal products, like ampalaya and malunggay powder, that are irradiated at the PNRI. The same with frozen fruits for export that are used in the production of ice cream.<br>
<br>Fresh onions and garlic also undergo irradiation in the PNRI facility to inhibit sprouts. It, likewise, irradiates medical products for sterilization purposes, such as syringes, cotton, orthopedic implants, gauze, tubings, catheters.<br>
<br>She said that in foreign countries 80 percent use irradiation for sterilization. In the US even pet foods are irradiated.<br><br>Patties for hamburgers, hot dogs or frozen chicken may also be irradiated.<br><br>De Guzman announced that the Philippines may soon export mango to the US after the three-year study affirmed the absence of seed weevil in the whole country. Luzon and Visayas were already found to be seed weevil- free. The results of the same study in the Mindanao situation are being awaited this year. <br>
<br>The mangoes for export to the US will still be irradiated against fruit flies.<br><br>In another export prospect, de Guzman said China is making inquiries on its possible importation of irradiated mangoes from the Philippines.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br></font><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>3-GM RICE YIELDS 50% MORE HARVEST EVEN WITH LESS FERTILIZER AND WATER USE<br>
</strong>by Melody M. Aguiba<br>10-April-2009 </font></font><a href="http://mb.com.ph/articles/201909/gm-rice-yields-50-more-harvest-even-with-less-fertilizer-and-water-use" 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">A genetically modified (GM) rice that can give 50 percent more harvest while requiring less fertilizer and water is seen as a long term solution to low yield in resource-scarce, poverty-stricken farms threatened by climate change.<br>
<br>The GM rice will have more efficient carbon dioxide capture with its enhanced capacity for photosynthesis, the process of using solar energy to capture carbon dioxide and converting it into growth-inducing carbohydrate in plants.<br>
<br>Some rice plants have inefficient means for photosynthesis, known as C3. However, Dr. John Sheehy, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) project leader for the GM rice, said that using C4 photosynthesis, rice plant’s capacity to convert solar energy in producing a richer grain can be enhanced particularly in tropical climates.<br>
<br>“Converting the photosynthesis of rice to C4 would increase yields by 50 percent, and that C4 would also use water twice as efficiently. The benefits of this breakthrough would be immense in developing countries where billions of poor people rely on rice as staple,” said Sheehy.<br>
<br>A total of $11 million has been allocated for this study.<br><br>In a related development, IRRI Director General Robert Zeigler said IRRI needs $150 million over 10 years or $15 million yearly for the Rice Action Plan (RAP) that would speed up development of high yielding rice varieties.<br>
<br>The plan aims to develop new high yielding rice inbreds and hybrids out of thousands of rice varieties that are stored at IRRI’s gene banks and tap into these germ-plasms’ yet unexplored genetic resources.<br><br>Aside from the development on the genetic side of rice, the program will increase the delivery of postharvest facilities in rice-producing areas in order to cut the losses that can amount to as much 20 percent of harvest. Its aim is also to train more rice breeders that are working on research and development projects funded by both the private sector and the government.<br>
<br>The RAP was approved by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry in October last year.<br><br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>4-BIOTECH CROPS' GLOBAL VALUE REACHES $7.5 BILLION</strong><br>
by Rudy A. Fernandez<br>06-April-2009 </font><a href="http://www.philstar.com/ArticlePrinterFriendly.aspx?articleId=455280" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">The Philippine STAR</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">MANILA, Philippines - The global market value of biotechnology crops reached $7.5 billion in 2008, up from $6.9 billion in 2007.<br><br>Last year’s $7.5 billion represented 14 percent Dr. Clive James, founder and current board chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).<br>
<br>New York (USA)-based ISAAA is a not-for-profit organization with an international network of centers designed to contribute to the alleviation of hunger and poverty by sharing knowledge and crop biotechnology applications.<br>
<br>The network includes the Southeast Asia Center based in Los Baños, Laguna, headed by Dr. Randy Hautea, currently ISAAA global coordinator and former director of the University of the Philippines Los Baños-Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB).<br>
<br>Dr. James’ report, titled “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008”, was presented by Dr. Hautea and former UP president Dr. Emil Q. Javier at a media forum last Feb. 12 at the Richmonde Hotel in Pasig City.<br>
<br>In his report, the Welsh-born research administrator projected that the global value of the biotech crop market for 2009 is approximately $8.3 billion.<br><br>Of the genetically modified (GM) crops produced in 2008, biotech maize constituted the biggest chunk of the global biotech market – $3.6 billion or 48 percent.<br>
<br>It was followed by soybean, $2.8 billion (37 percent); cotton, $0.9 billion (12 percent); and canola, $0.2 billion (three percent).<br><br>The other biotech crops raised in 2008 in 25 countries were papaya, squash, tomato, sweet pepper, alfalfa, poplar, petunia, carnation, and sugar beet.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>5-PCC PUTS UP P300-MILLION BIOTECH FACILITY</strong><br>by Jennifer A. Ng / Reporter<br>06-April-2009 </font><a href="http://businessmirror.com.ph/component/content/article/53-agri-commodities/8410-pcc-puts-up-p300-million-biotech-facility.html" 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">THE Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) is constructing a P300-million biotechnology center under a three-year multicommodity research and development project funded by a soft loan program of the United States government dubbed as the Public Law 480.<br>
<br>An attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), PCC is the country’s new biotechnology center for ruminants. The agency is expanding its center to serve as a common facility for dairy and meat animals not only for carabao, but also cattle, goat and sheep.<br>
<br>“We’re able to get funding for multicommodity research which allows us to cut across commodities other than just carabao,” Dr. Libertado Cruz, PCC executive director, said in a statement.<br><br>PCC intends to fully use the marker-assisted selection (MAS) method in choosing the best animal breeds it intends to reproduce.<br>
<br>An equipment the PCC plans to acquire is the DNA sequencer. At a cost of P18 million to P20 million, the sequencer helps research identify animals with superior traits. It is especially useful for breeding animals that could produce higher quantities of milk than the average animal. <br>
<br>Animals that have the DNA markers associated with the good traits are mated with other superior animals. The semen of these animals would be distributed for crossbreeding with native animals through artificial insemination.<br>
<br>The PCC is also expanding its cryobank, a gene bank for animal embryos, semen, blood and tissue—both native and foreign breeds—that need to be preserved.<br><br>Preservation through cryobanking in below zero degrees temperature would enable researchers to reproduce a specific breed known to carry a genetic trait of important economic value, such as high milk production and quality meat characterized by good marbling, tenderness and high-protein content.<br>
<br>Cruz noted that even the local breed may have future uses.<br><br>“The indigenous breed has distinct advantage which we don’t require at the moment but can be valuable in the future. One is resistance to disease, resistance to heat, and many others that have not yet been identified. The problem is that genes that regulate this resistance have not yet been identified,” he said.<br>
<br>The only animal-gene bank in the Philippines, the cryobank is in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, where the headquarters of PCC is also located. The cryobank has a total of 76,249 accessions including purebreds and crossbreds of carabao and cattle. It also keeps 2,168 native germplasms.<br>
<br>The agency has started ranking its own buffaloes according to expected breeding value (EBV). It has 881 animals that have EBVs which indicate milk production record of female animals. For the male buffalo, researchers place an EBV on potential for milk production based on the milk production of their female offspring.<br>
<br>Cruz said the PCC’s capability to determine molecular markers will also enhance the country’s ability to conduct quarantine or sanitary and phytosanitary processes when screening animals against diseases prior to importation.<br>
<br>The agency noted that the Philippines in the past had imported sick animals whose diseases have spread in the country because it lacked adequate ability to quarantine animals and test them with technical capabilities at the molecular level.<br>
<br>Cruz also said that PCC’s “capability for traceability through molecular markers” will be useful in the country’s long-term plan to export meat products.<br><br>He noted that traceability is now a feature in food safety required by the export market, as the market is seriously concerned about the origin of farm products.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br><strong>6-A NEW LOOK AT BIOFUELS </strong><br>Development Dialogue by Nora O. Gamolo <br>02-April-2009 </font><a href="http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/april/02/yehey/opinion/20090402opi6.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Manila Times</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Many landholders and land owning politicians tried to cash in on the promising bio-fuels program through wanton land conversion, allegedly to skirt agrarian reform, among other bad goals. Some long-time settlers and indigenous peoples were displaced when their lands were used for jatropha production. For the propertied investors, the program can later become manna, since the law had given them tremendous boosters and policy perks. <br>
<br>With such a dubious start, especially in jatropha production, the biofuels program became controversial. Yet, many of the mistakes that accompanied its birthing can be corrected now. <br><br>The program can even be used to improve small farmers’ lives if we could correct some fallacies and misconceptions, and amend the existing law to insert preferential options for the poor provisions—or draft a new and better law. Owing to its omissions and ambiguities, the existing law can be considered as a work still in progress. <br>
<br>The best way, in fact, to neutralize people’s resistance and the unsavory controversies that attended the program’s start is to make sure benefits will trickle to the people this time, not to halt in the hands of big landlords, corporate interests and land grabbers. To do this, you have to work with the people. <br>
<br>The trainors in the Impact Assessment of Biofuels Seminar organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture maintain that favored jatropha and other biofuel crops need not displace food crops. Instead, they should be used as supplemental crops that could in some cases even enrich the soil. <br>
<br>Jatropha could be intercropped with rice, corn, cassava and other tubers, sweet sorghum and vegetables, among others. In fact, you should only plant it with other crops as it takes at least three years before jatropha can reward you for your efforts. <br>
<br>Dr. Nena Espiritu, a UP Los Baños forestry professor, disclosed that 87 percent of jatropha project implementers surveyed opined that its production need not compete with food production only because you can plant it on unproductive, idle, hilly/rolling land and marginal areas and can be intercropped. <br>
<br>New ways of combining food production with energy crop production have already been developed. Energy crops can be targeted for the more marginal lands, while food crops can be grown on more favorable lands. <br><br>Communities and their local governments should follow their Comprehensive Land Use Plan. They should not allow the use of prime land, but use only marginal land, for ja-tropha production. <br>
<br>Jatropha production can help raise the incomes of small farmers and rural laborers, and may in fact lead to improved food security, stresses Dr. Espiritu. <br><br>These knowledge should now correct the bad practice of converting rice land into purely jatropha-producing land. This continues unfortunately to be done even now that we have a rice shortage and have to import rice often enough. <br>
<br>You also do not need a big corporate affair to process jatropha, since its production can be done in the village level, to be participated in by small farmers and their cooperatives that could either sell jatropha seeds, raise seedlings or cut-tings, or process them into their own biofuels. <br>
<br>Dr. Espiritu cited one local government that has ventured into assisting small farmers in processing indigenous and locally produced biofuel that it feeds to its own vehicles. The Visayas State University maintains vehicles that run on biofuels. These projects have upgraded the people’s science intelligence quotient by simply germinating biofuel crops in their communities. <br>
<br>Rafael Coscolouella, director of the Sugar Regulatory Administration and deputy director of the National Biofuels Board (NBB), calls for our support of the biofuels program, not just because it can provide much-needed jobs in the rural areas, but also because it can supply vital power needs. In Negros, a bioethanol project operates as a cogeneration project, producing energy uploaded to the power grid. <br>
<br>The program can in fact be used to spur village production centers of small farmers, rather than concentrate on big production ventures that benefit only the business sector. <br><br>The need for biofuels is tremendous. Of the country’s energy sources, coco methyl ester (CME) production can only supply less than 1 percent. <br>
<br>Using biofuels will greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, said forester Dr. Rodel Lasco. He shared scientific projections that if global temperature rises by two degrees, 30 percent of the world’s biodiversity will be wiped out. Dr. Lasco is one of four Filipino scientists who are members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize won by the elite group. <br>
<br>The Biofuels law enacted in 2007 mandated the increased use of biofuels. On February 6, the mandated minimum of 5-percent bioethanol fuel blend for gasoline became effective. Fuels available in pump stations for gasoline-fed vehicles are 10-percent bioethanol fuel blend or E-10 and pure gasoline. <br>
<br>On February 6, 2011, the mandated minimum of 10 percent-bioethanol fuel blend will become effective, subject to final recommendation of the NBB depending on the local supply of bioethanol. <br><br>Biofuel production can open new socioeconomic and scientific vistas for the Philippines. Agricultural research can and must help enhance overall crop productivity, while policy researches are in order to correct some of the biofuel’s law and program’s weaknesses.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br></font><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>INDIA<br>7-Bt BRINJAL MAY BE RELEASED COMMERCIALLY BY YEAR-END<br>
</strong>15-April-2009 </font></font><a href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/bt-brinjal-may-be-released-commercially-by-year-end/355113/" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Business Standard</font></a><br>
<br><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Bt brinjal, the country’s first genetically modified (GM) edible product, is in the final stage of getting a clearance from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the biotechnology regulatory body of the Government of India.<br>
<br>The Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company-(Mahyco-) developed Bt brinjal had run into trouble last year with the Union health ministry and consumer organisations raising questions about its safety with regard to health.<br>
<br>Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Usha Barwale Zehr, joint director (research), Mahyco, said, “We have already got the GEAC’s permission to produce Bt brinjal seeds for field trials, which have been completed. The scientific papers and data of the field trials have been submitted by the Review Committee on Genetic Modification (RCGM). It has been tested to be absolutely safe. We have applied for the commercial release of Bt brinjal seeds to the GEAC and hope it will be approved by the end of this year.”<br>
<br>In 2006, Mahyco, a leading seed company in India, which had successfully introduced cutting-edge biotech products such as Bt cotton hybrids, had applied for the commercial release of Bt brinjal, but GEAC had asked the company to conduct some more studies.<br>
<br>Mahyco had completed those studies and submitted the reports along with the application for commercial release again in 2008, Zehr said.<br><br>About the NGO campaigns against the release of Bt brinjal, fuelled by global studies questioning the health and safety of genetically modified edible products, Zehr claimed that in terms of composition, it was not different from the normal brinjal, except for the additional Bt protein. It would also improve the marketable yield, she said.<br>
<br>A major constraint in brinjal production is plant infestation by fruit shoot borers or FSBs. The pest can cause significant yield loss and reduce the number of marketable fruits.<br><br>The marketable yield loss due to FSBs is almost 45-60 per cent. Experts had estimated that financial loss to the country because of this 45-60 per cent damage was equivalent to Rs 1,000 crore a year, Zehr said. Bt brinjal can reduce this loss to 10 per cent, she claimed. Moreover, farmers would require 70 per cent less insecticides to fight FSBs in this case, she explained.<br>
<br>In India, brinjal is cultivated on 550,000 hectares with average produce of 30 tonnes.<br><br>According to a study by Mahyco, farmers invested about Rs 100 per pesticide spray per acre for anywhere between 40 and 45 sprays on the 90-day brinjal crop, depending upon the type of infestation, Zehr pointed out.<br>
<br><strong>------------------------------------------------------------</strong><br></font><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>GLOBAL<br>8-THE WORLD MUST FEED ITS HUNGRY<br></strong>17-April-2009 </font></font><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ab8dc834-2ab0-11de-8415-00144feabdc0.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" color="#0000ff" size="2">Financial Times</font></a><br>
<br><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><em><strong>EDITORIAL</strong></em><br>As we agonise about the recession, we should remember that humanity’s greatest economic problem is more basic: how to get enough food, a challenge still faced by millions.<br>
<br>This weekend the Group of Eight leading countries gathers in Italy for its first ever meeting of agriculture ministers. Their goal must be to move food policy up the global political agenda to a position where it is treated as the vital international security matter it is.<br>
<br>Last year’s record-high food commodity prices sparked riots as 100m people needed help from the World Food Programme. Thousands of desperate people in dozens of countries took to the streets in upheavals potentially far more destabilising than any reactions the financial meltdown has yet provoked. This danger will not go away.<br>
<br>Prices have come down, but remain higher than in decades. Even short disruptions cast long shadows: malnutrition in infancy can permanently impair children’s physical and cognitive development. Climate change, decades of declining investment in agriculture, and current policy mistakes conspire to make the crisis structural.<br>
<br>All countries share an interest in food security – their own, and for the sake of stability, that of others. But they must not confuse security with self-sufficiency. The world can produce enough food for all: as the economist Amartya Sen points out, famines are caused not by lack of food but by income inequality. The poor must get help – in ways that do not undermine food production.<br>
<br>Food exporters and importers alike need well-functioning international markets in food, which encourage efficient global production patterns. The responses to the crisis, sadly, have been in the opposite direction: export bans, land grabs of arable territory and secretive bilateral barter deals. These policies must stop. They are self-destructive and costly, and for poor countries ruinous. They do harm to others, as they undermine trading systems that benefit all.<br>
<br>Governments must provide global public goods. Research is needed to boost productivity, especially for African crops, and must not be hampered by opposition to genetically modified food. Mechanisms must be found to hedge against price volatility that discourages production even when prices are high. <br>
<br>The G8 has rightly invited important emerging countries to the table. But are agricultural ministers, who usually see their job as helping their own farmers, up to the task? Food security is the greatest threat to human well-being today. It should not be lost in quibbles about the branding of Parma ham.<br>
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