The challenge to feed the world’s 7.6 billion people has never been more daunting. Scientists, governments and farmers have come together to promote biotechnology and boost agricultural products in the face of shrinking arable land and global warming. During a recent ASEAN Plant Science Primer event organized by agriculture companies association CropLife Asia in Manila recently, The Jakarta Post’s writer Corry Elyda had the opportunity to observe how some ASEAN countries are making the most of biotechnology.

High costs, back-breaking work and unpredictable yields compelled Rosalie Ellasus to give up on corn farming to experiment with integrated pest management (IPM) after she had finished her college studies majoring in medical technology.

She spent a lot of money on pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. To make sure the chemicals worked effectively and did not kill her corn, she had to closely monitor the plants.   

 “I bought 1.3 hectares of land to do conventional farming and it was too much work,” she said.

But Rosalie changed her mind after the Philippine government allowed companies to release biotechnology corn seed. Scientifically, such a material is known as a genetically modified organism (GMO) or transgenic organism.

Transgenic corn has been genetically engineered to be resistant to pests, herbicides and even drought. With the biotechnology, farming becomes enjoyable and lucrative for farmers like Rosalie because it requires less tillage, pest control and fertilizers.

And most of all, the variety is high yielding. If the grains are properly dried, the products have a high probability of passing the aflatoxin test conducted by major feed millers. Aflatoxin is a toxin from a naturally occurring mold.

 “If we don’t monitor our land well, we can only get around 3.5 metric tons of corn per hectare with conventional farming but I can get 7.8 metric tons per ha with BT corn,” she said.

Since 2002, the Philippines has embraced the BT products, especially BT corn. Filipino farmers have been growing transgenic corn on more than 800,000 ha of farmland.

Transgenic or GM corn is billed as a logical solution to food security problems nowadays in the face of dwindling arable land, climate change and the falling number of farmers around the world.

The United Nations Population Council estimates that the world population will reach 9.8 billion people in 2050 while the arable land continues decreasing due to development activities.  

Furthermore, agriculture’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) is declining. For example, Indonesia’s GDP from agriculture declined from 17.55 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2015, according to Asia Development Bank (ADB) Key Indicators 2016.

Paul Teng, a professor at the Center for Non-Traditional Security Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the world was not only lose arable land, but also clean water and labor while it suffered from double burden nutrition — overweight and malnutrition.

“We also have many disruptions, including weather events, climate change that cause floods, pests and disease outbreaks,” he said. “We should grow enough without damaging the environment, so the future generation still have enough to eat.”

Teng believes that technology and science are the answers to the challenge, especially when resources become limited.

By and large, GMO remains a controversial issue in many countries, including Indonesia. Although many scientists maintain that GMO is safe, many environmentalists reject it over concerns of its long-term impact on human health and biodiversity.

Greenpeace, for example, considers transgenic an unnatural process and argues that GMO can spread through nature via cross-pollination from field to field and interbreed with natural organisms, so there is no way to control its impact.

Lagging behind

Unlike the Philippines, the Indonesian government is also reluctant to consider GMO in its plans to boost agricultural products but, ironically, the country has been a GM product importer for two decades.

Maman Suherman, the director of nuts and bulb cultivation at the Indonesian Agriculture Ministry, said Indonesia had been importing transgenic soybean since 1998. Even though GMO is more productive, the ministry has been taking baby steps to allow its development in Indonesia.

Noting that GMO development is not yet a priority, he said, “We don’t really need it because we already achieved rice self-sufficiency last year.”  

Indonesia produced 80 million metric tons of dried milled grain in 2016, making it self-sufficient after 32 years, according to official statistics. Instead of turning to GMO, the government is weighing up other options in increasing agricultural products.

Currently, it is seeking to open up 1 million ha of farmland across the archipelago. Indonesia has agro-forests suitable for cultivation of cash crops like soybean and nuts. On the land, residents can plant soybean between trees.

Indonesia became acquainted with GMO in 1995 through the biological engineering of cotton.  United States-based Monsanto set off a controversy when it started cultivation of genetically modified cotton in South Sulawesi in 1999. Following a deluge of protests from NGOs, the government stopped the commercial GM cotton project in 2003.

 Although the importation of GM products has long been under way, legislation on imported and locally produced transgenic seeds is still in the making. “Almost ready,” as bureaucrats put it.

As security precautions, GM seeds will have to undergo manifold tests and close monitoring first before the government can issue the necessary permit for the commodity to be cultivated or consumed as human food or animal feed.

“The stringent tests are needed to ensure the commodity’ safety for human consumption and the environment,” said Bahagiawati, a senior researcher with the Agriculture Ministry.   

The good news is that some GM crops, including more disease-resistant potatoes that the ministry experimentally cultivates, have a good chance of passing the tests.   

“Once the potatoes pass the environment safety test, farmers may grow it,” she said. The government authority overseeing the permit will be the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

It looks that cattle, too, will possibly hear similarly good news from the state-owned plantation firm, PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) IX, which is propitiously experimenting with drought-tolerant sugarcane the by-products of which will be good for livestock feed.   

Recently, a variety of herbicide-tolerant corn passed the ministry’s security tests but the government will not be able to release it until the legislation on GMO monitoring is completed and enforced.

Amid environmentalists’ anti-GMO campaigns, the Indonesian government’s stance on the issue remains that it keeps an open mind and exercises utmost caution.   

“There has been no scientific proof that GM products are harmful and yet hoaxes are swirling around about their menace,” Bahagiawati said.

While GMO remains a burning issue in Indonesia, farmers still heavily depend on chemical pesticides and fertilizers to sustain productivity unaware of their side effects for themselves and the environment.  

One of the traditional farmers is Maftukin, 45, from Lamongan, East Java.

“I have been farming for around 30 years and everything keeps changing,” he said. “The weather becomes more uncertain and we’re increasingly overwhelmed by pests and diseases nowadays.”

While farmers in other advanced countries have been using cutting edge technology like biotech and drones to scan their plants, for Maftukin, pesticide is still the answer to all the maladies. In the past, he and other fellow farmers would use diesel oil to kill rats on their farm.

The lack of official guidance combined with sheer ignorance has often led to pesticide overuse. Slack government control is also attributed to the thriving business of fake pesticides.    

Pest repellent overuse poses health hazards to both farmers and the environment. Bugs become immune to the pesticide and they need to make new formulas every three to five years.

While the debate over GMO shows no sign of dying down, all the pressing global problems of shrivelling arable land, poverty and food insecurity need biotechnology as a logical solution. Farmers, who account for 80 percent of the lowest income bracket in Indonesia, are especially in need of the government’s help with technology to prosper.