Product Stewardship: A Shared Responsibility for the Sustainable Use of Biotech Crops

The Philippines, a pioneer in adopting biotech crops in Asia, has been planting Bt corn for more than two decades. This milestone resulted in remarkable benefits to around 375,000 resource-poor farmers in the country. Since 2003, the adoption of Bt corn has increased from 10,700 hectares to 576,000 hectares as of February 2023. With the success of the Bt corn industry, other biotech crops in the pipeline, such as Bt eggplant, Golden Rice, and Bt cotton, have also emerged as important crops to transform the agricultural landscape in the Philippines.

In the life cycle of biotech crops, many have been pondering these questions: What will happen if the product is no longer effective? What will happen if the target pest is already gone? How can technology developers ensure product stewardship in these biotech crops?

On October 8, 2024, ISAAA Inc., through the Advancing Philippine Agri-biotech Capacity project with the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries Biotechnology Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA Biotech Program), organized a multi-stakeholder forum titled Responsible Innovation: Ensuring Product Stewardship in Crop Biotech at Vivere Hotel, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. This forum provided a collective learning space and discussions on the importance of product stewardship for regulatory compliance and sustainable use of biotech products. Key biotech players including technology developers, regulators, farmers, and representatives from the government and industry were invited to participate in this important event.

Product stewardship for biotech crops

“The Philippines is the first Asian country to establish a functional biosafety regulation,” said Dr. Lilia A. Portales, Vice-chair of the Post Approval Monitoring Group at the Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI). Genetically modified (GM) crops in the Philippines are regulated and governed by the Joint Department Circular (JDC) No. 1, Series of 2016 and 2021. The implementation of the new Circulars involves five government agencies including the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). 

The Memorandum Circular No. 2 of 2014 includes guidelines for post-approval monitoring of the crop, and refuge testing and sampling to monitor compliance to Insect Resistance Management (IRM). The IRM plan is one of the prerequisites for the approval of applications for the propagation of Bt corn, Bt eggplant, and Bt cotton. Regulators also conduct gene checking and an IRM nationwide survey every two years to test farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices on Bt corn farming and to monitor IRM compliance.

Stewardship program of PhilFIDA for Bt cotton

In 2008, the Cotton Development Authority, now the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFDA), evaluated Bt cotton and underwent contained and confined trials, and multilocation field trials from 2009 to 2015. Based on their evaluation, it was confirmed that Bt cotton is safe for human and animal health and the environment. No negative effects toward non-target organisms were also observed in their evaluation. After the field trials, PhilFIDA came up with a stewardship program for Bt cotton, highlighting the following aspects:

• Strong collaboration with international technology stakeholders
• Safeguarding the Bt cotton GFM Cry1A identity
• Employed recommended cotton production technology
• Implementation of the approved IRM scheme
• Conducting IEC activities for Bt cotton

Stewardship program of UPLB - IPB for Bt eggplant

Eggplant, locally known as talong, is among the top 15 consumed food products in the Philippines. As of 2022, the Philippines has 24,400 hectares allotted for eggplant production. In the same year, the value of eggplant harvests amounted to PhP 92 billion at a constant price. If left unmanaged, the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB) accounts for 80% yield loss in eggplant production. To address such challenges, the University of the Phillippines Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IPB) developed Bt eggplant, a GM crop that contains the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, to help farmers control EFSB infestation. This technology has not reported any adverse effects in the last 22 years.

According to Dr. Lourdes Taylo, the Project Leader of the UPLB Bt eggplant project, the stewardship model that Bt eggplant follows was derived from Excellence Through Stewardship (ETS) for Plant Biotechnology Product Life Cycle published in 2009. The stages include gene discovery, plant development, seed production, seed marketing and distribution, crop production, crop utilization, and product discontinuation. The elements of ETS include the following:

1. Quality management system
2. Maintaining plant product integrity
3. Co-existence
4. Product design and event selection
5. Opening, transitioning, and closing sites
6. Product launch
7. Insect resistance management and product use
8. Licensing, contracting, and partnership
9. Product discontinuation
10. Incident response

With proper compliance with the stewardship program, the Bt eggplant is expected to increase farmers’ profits up to PhP 438,000 and PhP 412,000 for the unsprayed Bt eggplant hybrid varieties, compared to the Php -8,000 and PhP -60,000 net income for the unsprayed commercial check hybrid variety and sprayed commercial check hybrid variety, respectively.

Stewardship program for biotech crops

Ms. Jenny A. Panopio, Associate Director at the Stewardship and Stakeholder Partnership of CropLife Asia (CLA), said that stewardship is the responsible and ethical way to manage crop protection products. This maximizes the benefits and minimizes any risk from crop protection and plant biotechnology products from gene discovery to product discontinuation.

Farmers, as primary beneficiaries of biotech crops, need to be aware of how to handle biotech products. Stewardship support tools for crop protection, plant biotech, and digital agricultural are vital. Ms. Panopio said that IPM, in stewardship, is a comprehensive strategy designed to provide the most cost-effective, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable method of managing diseases, insects, weeds, and other pests in agriculture. 

CLA promotes IPM and responsible use to farmers in Southeast Asia through village training and demonstrations, stewardship campaigns, retailer training, village cultural shows, and their Plant Doctors on the Go. CLA also highlights the importance of resistance management as part of IPM and stewardship to retain durability and prevent resistance to crop protection. Aside from this, container management and new agricultural technologies were also mentioned to be important strategies to ensure the success of any stewardship program.

Farmer practices and compliance 

Farmers’ motivation is always economic. Mr. Adriel Dave Alvarez, a member of the Global Farmer Network, said that it is important to address poverty in agriculture to ensure the compliance of farmers. For a farmer who is struggling to make money out of farming, farmers tend to perceive biotechnology as an additional expense. Mr. Alvarez emphasized that stewardship is easy to follow if poverty in agriculture is addressed. If farmers are making money and farming is economically rewarding, Mr. Alvarez believes that more innovations will thrive, local production will increase, and the country will be a more food-secure nation.

Recommendations from key biotech players

The open discussion during the multi-stakeholder forum provided a platform for discussions on compliance issues and challenges, policy directions, and ways forward for the sustainable use of biotech products. Some of the key topics and recommendations discussed include the following:

• BPI is having a discussion to update and revise the Memorandum Circular No. 2 of 2014 to be more inclusive for other biotech crops, such as Bt eggplant and Bt cotton.
• The issue of unregistered or illegal Bt corn seeds, also known as “sige-sige” and “ukay-ukay” seeds, is an important and urgent issue that needs to be addressed to prevent jeopardizing biotech crops.
• Incentivizing farmers who comply with the prescribed refuge system and stewardship programs could be a way to encourage compliance and stewardship. The incentives could be in the form of insurance for financers and these incentives may come not only from the government but also from the industry.
• Educating the growers about the importance of licensed seeds is an essential step to protecting Bt eggplant and Bt cotton from the sige-sige seed trade.
• Technology developers from Bt eggplant and Bt cotton teams are encouraged to engage in policy discussions about illegal seeds to protect the eggplant and cotton industry from the effects of illegal seeds.
• The information dissemination of BPI in their monitoring activities is lacking. This entails that the regulators need to have a more effective monitoring system for GM crops to keep key players and the general public aware of their efforts.
• BPI needs partner stakeholders to help monitor GM crops after commercialization and implementation of guidelines to prevent the economy from becoming jeopardized.
• Responsible ownership, proper marketing, and branding all complement stewardship. The technology developer is responsible for the stewardship of their products.

The discussions concluded with a question from Ms. Kristine Grace Tome, ISAAA Program Officer II, who delivered the synthesis, “What can we do to move from being a model of biosafety regulations in the region to a model of excellent stewardship of innovation?”

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