A group of local corn farmers have asked biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. to develop and distribute a genetically-modified (GM) soybean variety as an alternative crop.

"We are asking Monsanto to help us develop a tropical variety soybean that is round-up ready [weed-tolerant]," Roderico R. Bioco, chairman emeritus of the Philippine Maize Federation, Inc. (Philmaize), told reporters late Monday. "Soybean is one of the best alternative [crop] and there is a big market for soybeans." Philmaize hopes to sign a deal with the biotechnology giant late this year, he added.

A local Monsanto executive refused to comment on the group’s request, saying that all statements will have to come from the mother company in the U.S.

Industry data show that around 1.5-2.5 million metric tons of soybean meal — oil-free soybean — are imported by feed millers yearly. Soybean accounts for a fifth of animal feed milling ingredients, Mr. Bioco said.

Mr. Bioco added that planting soybean is like using three bags of fertilizers per hectare of land due to its nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which will benefit the next cropping of corn or rice. Soybean is sold in the local market at P18-P24 per kilo.

Philmaize is looking at planting soybean in 125,000-150,000 hectares of land in the corn-producing province of Isabela.

Missouri-based Monsanto, which sells GM crops like corn, cotton, soybeans and canola, owns the technology of GM soybean. Top soybean producers Argentina and the United States produce temperate GM soybean varieties while the tropical GM soybean variety is propagated in Brazil.

Mr. Bioco said all GM soy-beans produced locally can be sold to the Mindanao Grain Processing Co., Inc. Mindanao Grains’ P500-million Reina Mercedes Post-harvest Facility in Isabela will be completed next year. Mr. Bioco said "yields [of local soybeans] are not good enough to be profitable."

Candido B. Damo, chief agri-culturist for the Agriculture department’s National Corn Program, concurred. "Compared with corn, profits in soybean planting is less due to low yields." Mr. Damo said a soybean variety developed by the Institute of Plant Breeding of University of the Philippines in Los Baños yields about 1.5-2 metric tons per hectare.

Local soybean plantations are located in the Cagayan Valley, as well as in northern and southern Mindanao, he said. The GM soybean produces 2.5 MT per hectare, Mr. Bioco said.

However, Mr. Damo said "[Monsanto and Philmaize] should first test the productivity of the tropical variety in the Philippines." Corn farmers have protested the government’s decision last week to cut its buying price to P10/kg from the P13/kg adopted last May, citing production costs that average P10/kg.

Corn sold to private traders have sunk to P7-P9/kg due to the excessive imports of feed wheat, an alternative to corn in feed milling, under the 0% duty (down from 7%) that the government put in place from January to June 21.

Source: www.checkbiotech.org