The importance of biotech development to the country's overall
economy will see China work towards finding wider applications for
agricultural biotechnology in the next five years as the sector's
growth is significantly important to the overall economy.
A biotech development strategy for the 11th Five-Year Guidelines
(2006-10), has already been identified says Qi Chengyuan, director
of the High and New Technology Department under the National
Development and Reform Committee.
Within that strategy efforts will be made to develop the
biotechnological seeding of major crops -- commonly known as
genetically modified (GM) crops.
China will increase its investment in safety monitoring. It's
considered that a comprehensive and accurate safety evaluation is
required before further commercialization of GM crops.
Technology on the rise
In genetic modification, genes from outside sources often from
other kinds of crops or bacteria are transplanted into the crop.
The process has been proved to increase insect resistance, salt and
drought tolerance, and anti-herbicide and anti-crop disease
traits.
The most frequently used outside gene is derived from bacteria
called Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly called Bt, which makes
cotton crops produce a chemical that kills bollworms.
Agricultural biotechnology is a field in which Chinese research
is close to its US counterpart, according to Zhu Zhen, a leading
rice scientist and the deputy director of the Bureau of Life
Science and Biotechnology at the Chinese Academy
of Sciences.
According to the China Bio-Industrial Report, released by the
China National Center of Biotechnology Development, the Ministry of
Agriculture, as of mid 2003, had approved 585 GM plant experiments,
including 154 environmental releases and 48 pre-production
trials.?
The Chinese government approved commercialization of GM cotton,
tomatoes, pimientos (Spanish pepper) and a species of Morning Glory
(Ipomoea cairica) in the late 1990s.
Commercialized planting of Bt cotton was introduced in 1997.
Today more than 66 percent of China's fields growing cotton are of
that type. Last September, Guo Sandui, a leading scientist of the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), successfully
developed a new hybrid variety of GM cotton that can not only kill
worms, but also increase output.
"If the hybrid variety of Bt cotton is grown across China,
farmers can save up to 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) per year,"
Guo said.
GM planting has been accepted more quickly in developing
countries. According to a report by the International Service for
the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, which was released in
January, four new countries accounting for a quarter-million
farmers planted biotech crops as part of an 11 percent increase in
the growth globally of GM crops. Global planting of GM crops has
soared by more than fifty-fold from 1.7 million hectares in six
countries in 1996 to 90 million hectares in 21 countries in
2005.
Last year Iran became the first country to approve the
commercial planting of GM rice in the world.
Greater safety concerns
However, China has remained cautious. Last year, the State
Agricultural GM Crop Bio-safety Committee, technically the
decision-making body for commercialization of GM planting in China,
was reshuffled.
The number of agricultural biotechnology scientists, who had
dominated the committee in the previous session, was changed,
according to Peng Yufa, a member of the GM Crop Bio-Safety
Committee and chief scientist at the CAAS Biosafety Research
Center. Bio-safety and environmental scientists have joined the new
committee.
The plan is to establish local GM plant safety evaluation
centers in cities and provinces with more bio-safety evaluation
laboratories -- independent of the research teams developing GM
crops -- a source close to the Ministry of Agriculture told
China Daily. One such bio-safety evaluation base was set
up in late 2005 in Shanghai.
More money was to be spent on GM crop testing equipment so that
scientists could better monitor all aspects of any potential
environmental impact, a source explained.?
Uncertainties remain
Zhu Zhen, the leading scientist to promote the commercialization
of GM rice, said he believed the new bio-safety committee and the
increased investment would help increase the number of biotech
applications in agriculture.
"The better regulation of the GM plants is a good thing," Zhu
said. "With more bio-safety and environmental scientists joining
the review team for GM crops, the team will have more direct
experience on the safety and efficiency of GM technology."
However, so far, none of the major crops -- such as rice, wheat
and corn --have been commercialized in China.?
Zhang Yongjun, a senior research fellow at the Institute of
Plant Protection of CAAS, says the top bio-safety problem is
whether the insects that Bt crops are targeting -- mainly bollworms
-- will develop a resistance to the crop and potentially becoming
'super pests'.
A 'safety net' -- a belt of non-GM crops -- has been widely
adopted in the US to keep pests from developing that
resistance.
In China, farmers who grow commercialized Bt cotton have not
created these 'safety nets'? because the diverse planting
structure gives natural protection explained Zhang. It was
suggested by Zhu that the diverse planting of rice and wheat would
provide further safeguards.?
But Zhang said the scenario might be different if GM rice was
commercialized. Cotton farmers often planted food crops while rice
farmers were very likely to introduce one type of GM rice to
maximize their returns because their areas of arable land are so
small.
"If any GM crop goes commercial, very serious and reasonable
policies, such as subsidizing farmers whose land becomes a refuge,
must be worked out," Zhang says.
Another problem is that although the bollworms have been curbed
by Bt cotton, other minor insects, such as reuters (Cyrtopeltis
tenuis), have thrived to become major threats to the crop.
So far farmers have used broad-spectrum pesticide to kill
reuters but there are health risks associated with the use of the
pesticide.
Zhang said specific pesticides should be developed to resist
'reuters'.
"As a whole, the efficiency of GM cotton has not been offset by
the rise of minor pests or other problems," Zhang said. "But we
have to be more cautious in developing major GM grains whose
situation might be more complicated."?
Ma Tianjie, vice-campaigner for Greenpeace China, says that the
increased efforts in bio-safety evaluation should not automatically
lead to the commercialization of GM crops.
"The evaluation process remains less transparent and the public
still do not have a say in the decision-making process," Ma said.
"Before commercializing any GM crops, we must consider all possible
preventive measures against its potential harm."
(China Daily February 14, 2006)