Philippines and Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering is defined as one of the more advanced scientific techniques in biotechnology. It refers to all techniques that artificially move genes from one organism to another to produce new organism. It allows desirable genes from plant, animal, or microorganism to be incorporated into an unrelated species. Plant cells can be grown and induced to regenerate whole plants with the introduced genes. Definitely, this technique is needed by the countries that are wealthy in natural resources.
Philippines is one of the countries that adapted genetic engineering for their crops. Known for being rich in natural resources, Philippines avail genetic engineering to improve the production of crops in the country. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Biotech, both in Los Banos, Laguna and the Philippine Rice Institute (PhilRice) in Nueva Ecija are undertaking transgenic researches to improve the resistance of rice varieties to insect pests. Undeniably, genetic engineering can help the farmers to protect their crops, and apparently, to make it more welthy. Since agriculture is the main source of living of Filipinos, the farmers need to follow the strict guidelines for its affectivity. The National Committee of Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) formulates policies and guidelines on activities on genetic engineering including research, importation, production, and distribution. They already done researches to produce transgenic plants with delayed ripening characteristics. The farmers should be careful and proper application must be done because there are lots of combination of cultural, chemical, and biological control that can be used to protect plants from pests.
It is a testimony that Philippines should be the first country to improve genetic engineering because of its richness in natural resources and farming is the source of living of its citizens. If there is one country to produce genetically engineered crops, it has to be the Philippines. At present, the local scientists in different government agencies and academic institutions are still doing researches for the improvement of Philippine crops. It just has to be properly funded and supported so that results can be attained in their experiments.