UIUC-ISAAA
SURVEY: SOUTHEAST ASIANS POSITIVE TO AGRI-BIOTECH, EXHIBIT HIGH
TRUST IN UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTES
Southeast
Asians show high interest in biotechnology and express strong appreciation
for the role of science in the development of agriculture. In addition,
they do not think that agricultural biotechnology is a risk to
public health and food safety. They see the possible benefits arising
from the applications of biotechnology in medicine, food, and crop
production. More specifically, they believe that biotechnology
will benefit agriculture and the small farmers in their own countries.
Most
of the businessmen, consumers and farmer leaders in Southeast Asia
agree that genetically modified (GM) food should be labeled although
not all of them would be willing to pay for the extra cost involved.
Thai policy makers and consumers topped the bill of those stakeholders
who would be willing to pay for labeling. Majority of the stakeholders
in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia expressed dissatisfaction
over regulatory processes in their respective countries. The Philippine
stakeholders remained divided in this issue.
Moreover,
the results indicate that survey respondents consisting of consumers,
businessmen, extension workers, farmer leaders, policy makers,
and journalists consider university scientists and research institutes
as most trustworthy. Across the five countries, the respondents
believe that university scientists and research institutes tend
to be highly concerned about public health and safety issues relating
to biotechnology. They also think that university scientists and
research institutes should be entrusted the responsibility for
assessing and managing the risks relating to agricultural biotechnology.
These
are some of the results of a recent survey of key stakeholders
in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam by communication
researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(UIUC), and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA). The survey is based on a random sample of
2,047 respondents in five Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The following are
some of the key findings of the surveys:
Key
Findings
- Average
Factual Knowledge. Most Southeast Asian stakeholders show an
average level of awareness and attentiveness to factual information
on biotechnology. This was based on a pop-quiz composed of twelve
statements to ascertain their objective knowledge on the topic.
Businessmen (Vietnam: 62%, Thailand: 62%, Indonesia: 56.9%, Philippines:
50%), consumers (Philippines: 63.9%, Indonesia: 52%, Vietnam:
50.5%), journalists (Philippines: 59.1%, Indonesia: 54.8%, Vietnam:
50%), and extension workers (Thailand: 63.3%, Indonesia: 62.8%,
Vietnam: 54%) exhibit a moderate degree of understanding of biotechnology.
- High
Interest in Agricultural Biotechnology. In all five countries,
stakeholders generally exhibit high interest in biotechnology.
Policy makers (Indonesia: 80%, Thailand: 79.1%, Malaysia: 78.6%,
Philippines: 77.3%, Vietnam: 71%), farmer leaders (Indonesia:
94.1%, Vietnam: 70%), extension workers (Indonesia: 78.5%) and
scientists (Malaysia: 99.9%, Vietnam: 96.9%, Thailand: 83.3%)
were the top stakeholder groups that show high interest in biotechnology.
These results indicate that biotechnology generates a lot of
attention from stakeholders who tend to be directly involved
in biotechnology and whose opinions and decisions have a significant
influence on the future of biotechnology in these countries.
- High
Benefits, Low Risks. Southeast Asian stakeholders generally view
biotechnology as having high benefits, and relatively low risks.
It can be noted that those who either work directly with farmers
such as extension workers, are farmers themselves such as farm
leaders, or have farm-based constituencies such as policy makers,
have assessed very highly the benefits that can be derived from
biotechnology. Policy makers (Malaysia: 85.7%, Vietnam: 83.9%,
Thailand: 83.8%, Philippines: 71.1%, Indonesia: 70%), farmer
leaders (Vietnam: 88%), and extension workers (Vietnam: 86%,
Indonesia: 72.6%) were the top stakeholder groups that see biotechnology
as having high benefits.
Stakeholders
in Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam are rather unsure about their
perceptions of the risks they tend to associate with biotechnology.
Perceptions of risk assessment is practically split three ways,
that is, between low, moderate, and high perceptions. Farmer leaders
(Indonesia: 76.4%, Thailand: 50%) and extension workers (Indonesia:
76.5%, Malaysia: 63.1%) say that biotechnology poses low risks.
High risks are associated with biotechnology by journalists from
Vietnam 82%, the Philippines 73%, and Malaysia 62.9%. Survey respondents
as a whole perceive biotechnology as having below moderate risks.
- Positive
Attitude Towards Biotechnology. Southeast Asians tend to exhibit
positive attitudes towards biotechnology, and certainly do not
show the kind of skepticism, distrust, or hostility that appear
to characterize other public discussions on biotechnology. Farmer
leaders (Indonesia: 84.6%, Vietnam: 84%, Philippines: 79%, Malaysia:
74.6%) have a very positive attitude towards biotechnology. It
should also be noted that consumers (Philippines: 82.8%, Vietnam:
73.7%, Thailand: 70%), extension workers (Vietnam: 84%, Thailand:
78.3%, Indonesia: 76.4%) policy makers (Thailand: 88.4%, Vietnam:
87.2%, Malaysia: 74.9%) and businessmen (Indonesia: 76.4%, Philippines:
74.1%, Malaysia: 72.6%) are in support of biotechnology.
Other
Key Findings from the Survey
- Labeling
GM Foods. Consumers (Philippines: 95.3%, Thailand: 95%, Malaysia:
90.1%, Indonesia: 89%, Vietnam: 88.9%) prefer that GM food should
be labeled. Farmer leaders in Malaysia 61.7%, Vietnam 50%, and
the Philippines 50.9% say that they are willing to pay extra
cost for labeling GM food. The same is true for the policy makers
in Thailand 81.4% and Malaysia 53.6% The results suggest that
labeling is probably seen by most stakeholders as a concept almost
similar to the “right to vote.”
- Banning
of GM Food. Policy makers (Indonesia: 86.6%, Malaysia: 75%, Philippines:
75.3%, Thailand: 62.8%) were not in favor of contributing their
own resources (time and money) to ban GM food. On the other hand,
farmer leaders (Thailand: 50%, Vietnam: 50%) and journalists
(Thailand: 50%, Vietnam: 50%) were willing to provide resources
to ban GM food.
- Agricultural
Biotechnology Benefits Small Farmers. There is a wide appreciation
among Southeast Asian stakeholders about the benefits of agricultural
biotechnology to small farmers. Farmer leaders (Vietnam: 82%,
Thailand: 64%, Indonesia: 56.8%), policy makers (Indonesia: 80%,
Philippines: 79.4%, Malaysia: 71.4%), extension workers (Vietnam:
86%, Philippines: 77.2%, Indonesia: 70%) and consumers (Philippines:
69.8%, Malaysia: 62.2%, Thailand: 60%) show the most appreciation.
Similarly, policy makers (Vietnam: 90.3%, Malaysia: 85.7%, Indonesia:
83.3%, Thailand: 81.4%, Philippines: 78.4%) have very positive
thoughts about the value of agricultural biotechnology in their
respective countries.
- Current
Biotechnology Regulations are Sufficient. A considerable percentage
of stakeholders in Thailand (journalists: 65.6%, consumers: 60%,
businessmen: 58%, extension workers: 55%, farmer leaders: 50%),
Vietnam (policy makers: 71%, farmer leaders: 64%, journalists:
60.7%, consumers: 52.5%), Indonesia (journalists: 77.4%, businessmen:
60.8%, extension workers: 54.9%, consumers: 51%) and Malaysia
(journalists: 66.6%, businessmen: 55.7%, policy makers: 53.6%,
consumers: 51.3%) have expressed reservations about their countries’ ability
to regulate biotechnology. However, Indonesian policy makers
(85.4%) and farmer leaders (80.4%), and Malaysian farmer leaders
(59.6%) believe that current biotechnology regulations are adequate
within their respective countries.
The
UIUC-ISAAA study hopes to establish a clear profile of each stakeholder
that can be useful for extension educators, communication planners,
and other decision makers involved in agricultural biotechnology.
The survey results are reported and analyzed in individual country
monographs which are now available online at http://www.isaaa.org/kc.
A separate and integrative publication, which further examines
in detail the similarities and differences between stakeholders
across countries, will be released in June 2003. |