BAR TODAY || Official Quarterly Publication of the Bureau of Agricultural Research

Gensan farmers clamor for more Bt crops
by Saturnina Halos

January-March 2000
Volume 2 No. 1

Farmers from General Santos City witnessed 18 March, within the Agroseeds Philippine Inc. experimental station the harvest of the first field trial of Bt corn in the country. They saw that randomly uprooted Bt corn plants had no damage from the corn borer whereas similarly uprooted corn plants belonging to three non-Bt corn varieties showed extensive damage. The corn cobs showed similar patterns of infestation.

Through the years, cornfields in Mindanao are often devastated by borers with damage ranging from 30-80%. Some farmers use a very potent insecticide, Furadan that gets into all the tissues of the plant to combat the borer. Hence, the resulting grains may also contain some of the toxic Furadan. Other farmers who cannot afford to buy the insecticide, harvest the few left borer-infested corn which is often not healthy. Borer-infested cobs promote the growth of fungi that produce a cancer-causing substance, aflatoxin in the grains.

Farmers including all presidents of 10 farmer associations comprising the 4,000-member federation of farmer associations in General Santos City closely watched the Bt corn trial. The prospect of planting Bt corn varieties resistant to borer infestation is very inviting to these farmers. One president, Edwin Paraluman, claimed to have lost one carabao from eating Furadan-laced corn. Another president, Nilo Apurado mentioned that they have suffered losing consciousness when applying insecticides to combat borer infestation. One president, Marcelino Ojutan declared that the Bt corn appears to be safer to friendly insects compared with Furadan, because when the latter is applied, no insect could be observed for sometime in the cornfields whereas the Bt corn plants harbored aphids, grasshoppers, and spiders during the three months the plants were standing. Another president, Rogelio Villaplana asked why there was so much fuss and suggested that next time, Bt corn seeds should simply be disseminated like any ordinary hybrid seed. Hence, many came to ask where they can buy the seeds of the Bt corn variety. When asked if they would eat Bt corn, the farmers readily said, they would do so anytime and would prefer these to Furadan-protected corn.

Another group of farmers is requesting scientists to transfer the Bt gene to other crops devastated and similarly damaged by borers such as rice, eggplant, and tomato. Roger Iting who leads one of the farmer associations argued very strongly for an insect/pest-protected eggplant. After all, to protect the eggplant they have to spray insecticide a few days prior to harvest. He is quite sure such beautiful eggplants contain insecticide residues harmful to human health. To address this problem, BAR has provided P10 million in 1999 for biotechnology research projects.