Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary counts on biotech in mitigating water and energy crisis
The Philippine’s Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Segfredo R. Serrano supports biotechnology as one of the interventions that can provide new set of tools in mitigating the challenges of water and energy crisis in the country. “Biotechnology is one of the emerging technologies which the Philippine government supports to develop a new platform of technologies in meeting these challenges.
The Philippines is the only country in the Southeast Asia with an established and functional biotechnology regulatory system, and this will pave the way for the commercialization of biotechnology products that can help in meeting these challenges” shares Usec. Serrano during the opening of the Annual Conference of the Federation of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines last May 19, 2009 held in Silliman University, Dumaguete City. Usec Serrano added that the Department of Agriculture will continuously support biotechnology research, development and extension efforts to attain food sufficiency and improve health and well being of the Filipinos.
In addition, Dr. Antonio C. Laurena of University of the Philippines Los Baños Institute of Plant Breeding shared the current research and development initiatives in biotechnology which are aimed in meeting the water and energy crises. These include drought-tolerant crops such as rice, corn, wheat and sugarcane, as well as genetically engineered biofuel crops as one option in boosting biofuel production. In the near future, products of these initiatives will be available to the farmers and to the entire community.
For further details, please contact:
Ms. Jenny A. Panopio
Special Project Coordinator
and BIC Network Administrator
SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center
SEARCA, College 4031, Laguna, Philippines
Telephone nos.: +63 49 536 2290 local 406 or 169
Telefax no.: +63 49 536 4105
E-mail: jap@agri.searca.org;
rbl@agri.searca.org
URL:
www.bic.searca.org
Empowerment through shared information
About SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center
The SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center (BIC) is one of the networks of biotechnology information centers of the Global Knowledge Center of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) and hosted by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Studies and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). It was officially established in 2000 to address the needs of the region for a highly credible, sound and factual biotechnology information center in the Southeast Asian region accessible to various stakeholders. To learn more about SEARCA BIC, visit its website at
www.searca.org.
