The program that is to make use of biotechnology in agriculture and rural development until 2020 has some encouraging results. Under the program, 41 research projects were carried out in 2008.

In agriculture, the research projects established gene maps and gene separation and grafting. The objective was to create new crop varieties that would give a higher yield, be pest resistant and withstand adverse weather conditions.

Under the program, five research projects to genetically modify crops (maize, soy beans, pine trees, bead trees, and duckweed) are underway and new generations (T2) of corn and soy bean varieties have been created. The program’s steering committee said that they’ve created three new hybrid rice varieties and two new hybrid maize varieties which could go into mass production by 2010, along with several other genetically modified crops that, will be mass produced by 2011. The Prime Minister enacted Decision 11/2006/QD-TTg approving a national program to develop and apply biotechnology in agriculture and rural development until 2020 back on January 12, 2006.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development established a Steering Committee of 15 members for the program, eight coming from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the other seven from the Government Office, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and several others.

The program works with science technology and training organizations under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plus the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology the Institute of Food and Biological Technology and several others.

The program’s steering committee chairman Dr. and Associate Professor Nguyen Quang Thach said that the biggest problem now is the reluctance of local governments, industry organizations and businesses to make use of the program’s findings. “Local governments and state organizations are rarely interested in research carried out by science and technology organizations,” said professor Thach. One reason for this reluctance is the practical inability to import new technologies, which is what is needed to make use of biotechnology in production to improve people’s lives.

Twenty-two of the 41 research projects thus far were on enzymes for fertilizer production, pesticide production, cattle feed, environmental pollution treatments and the preservation of post-harvest agricultural produce and cooking. Two research projects on the production of fertilizer through composting have been widely applied in the Central Highland provinces.

Engineer Nghiem Thi Minh Thu from the Dak Lak Province Science and Technology Application Center, a project manager, said that the center has thus far developed 14 enzyme models that can be used by households and five models at can be used on an extensive scale with a production capacity of 300 to 1,000 tonnes of bio-enzymes per year. With the use of these enzymes, agricultural by-products are composted making fertilizer.

More than 4,000 tonnes of enzymes were produced in 2008. The center sent in records to register its product label BIOWA, a bio-enzyme for composting, and it awaits approval. This was the first success of the 2006-2010 program that is to make use of biotechnology to create new products and methods that can be used under Vietnam’s production conditions.

VietNamNet/VEN