Clive James Seminar on 2012 Global Status of Biotech Crops Gathered Philippine Stakeholders

More than a hundred members of the Philippine scientific and academic community, government agencies, regulators, farmers, private sector, media, and other stakeholders took part in a Special Seminar and Media Conference on the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2012. The seminar was co-organized by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), and Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) on February 27, 2013 in Hyatt Hotel, Manila, Philippines.

The event launched ISAAAs Annual Report, the ISAAA Brief No. 44: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2012. Dr. Clive James, Founder and Chair of ISAAA, reported the global status of biotech crop adoption in 2012. Philippine National Corn Competitiveness Board Executive Director Salvador Umengan shared the contributions from a decade of planting biotech corn to the national corn industry, and the challenges to biotech adoption in the country. A successful biotech corn farmer from the province of Pangasinan, Ms. Rosalie Ellasus, also shared her adoption experience and attested to the benefits of planting biotech corn during the media conference.

For more information about biotechnology developments in the Philippines, visit http://www.bic.searca.org/ or e-mail bic@agri.searca.org.