• 
• 

Published on July 1, 2007

The Science Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry are planning to propose the Cabinet accept field trials of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops for research and development purposes.

GMO is a controversial issue which has raised conflict in society over its impact. While biotechnology researchers have said it is necessary to conduct GMO research to develop scientific knowledge within the country to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the technology, some groups are against the development.

Even though Thailand allows researchers to conduct R&D on GMO, the Cabinet six years ago passed a resolution to permit GMO research projects to be conducted and tested only within laboratories, not as field trials.

Researchers have said this resolution places limits on the development of knowledge. To better understand the technology, they have said research and development - including field trials - is required.

Sakarindr Bhumiratana, president of the National Science and Technology Development Agency, said that to increase scientific knowledge, the Science Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry had agreed to propose that the Cabinet allow a field trial of GMO crops.

He said research and development would help the country as a foundation to enable researchers and society as a whole to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of the technology so they could make further decisions about whether the country should continue developments in the area.

The Agriculture Ministry will propose the idea to Cabinet next month to pass regulations on GMO crop field trials while the Science Ministry will take care of the development of bio-safety standards to control the field process as well as designing a GMO research and development roadmap.

Sakarindr said the development of GMO technology would have to come with bio-safety measures to ensure that the entire research and development process, especially in any field trial, was done under rigid safety standards and was controllable.

"Now we have a scientific procedure and regulations that can make sure that all field trials will be safe and will not harm the environment and its surroundings," he said.

The National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) has also drafted a roadmap for GMO research.

Biotec's director Morakot Tanticharoen said the roadmap was expected to go to Cabinet at the same time as the Agriculture Ministry proposed the field-trial plan next month.

She said the roadmap would be a guideline for GMO development during the four years from 2008 to 2011.

The roadmap consists of four strategic plans including the development of technology competence among local researchers; the development of GM crop prototypes which have economic, social and environment value; the development of bio-safety mechanisms for field trials; and the development of public understanding of the technology.

In the first year, she said the plan was hoped to develop a bio-safety mechanism for field trials while training at least 10 biotechnology researchers to oversee field-trial safety. The roadmap also plans to increase this to 30 researchers in 2009 and 50 in 2010.

Meanwhile, the plan will also focus on the development of 15 science communicators in the second year to help public understanding of GMO technology as well as push the development of at least five prototype GMO crops.

Examples of crops with potential for research and development include tomatoes, papaya, chili and pineapple.

She said that the development of basic genetic technology would also be done in parallel to help the country build its own knowledge for further development. The technology in this area included the gene-discovery process as well as gene transformation.

"Eventually we hope we will have basic genetic technology from the discovery of new gene characteristics in crops or gene transformations that can be patented. We hope for at least five patents in the next four years," she said.

She said the roadmap was hoped to help the country create a competitive advantage and put it on the right direction for GMO technology.