HYDERABAD, India (PNA) -- An international expert on biotechnology has warned that the raids conducted by activists in sites where field testing of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops such as Bt eggplant is being conducted could be "costly" for the Philippines as this may discourage businessmen and other institutions from collaborating on similar projects in the future.

Bhagirath Choudhary, national coordinator of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) South Asia Office based in India, said that in countries that are having lots of problems with regard to resources such as the Philippines and India, where governments are cutting budgets for research and development (R&D), "trespassing (in sites) where the trials are being conducted should not be tolerated."

He said Philippine authorities should see to it that field trials that comply with government regulations are secure.

Besides, Choudhary said, "scientists will also lose confidence in the project.

Last month, anti-genetically modified crops reportedly belonging to Greenpeace, entered the experimental area in the University of the Philippines in Los Banos, Laguna and uprooted the Bt eggplant or "fruit and shoot borer" resistant eggplant planted there.

In December, transgenic eggplants planted at a University of the Philippines Mindanao campus in Davao were also forcibly uprooted following a cease-and-desist order issued by the local government against field testing of Bt eggplants.

Choudhary, in an interview at the sidelines of the Global Agri-Business Incubation Conference currently being held here, said he is hopeful that the Philippine government will find a way to resolve issues surrounding field testing of Bt crops that have the potential to benefit farmers and for the country to attain food self-sufficiency.

Iloilo Rep. Jerry Trenas earlier said that aside from the skyrocketing cost of fuel, the Philippines' next biggest challenge is the looming global food crisis and unless the government moves rapidly to increase domestic food production, the country might fall into a severe food shortage situation.

He cited the latest Global Economic Strategy report released by Nomura, the largest global investment bank in Asia, which showed that the Philippines is the 13th among 80 nations which has the highest degree of food price surge vulnerability.

Trenas, chairman of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability at the House of Representatives, said the government should now start directing its policies on sustainable food security programs as economic experts around the world are raising the alarm bells for a worsening global food surge that can cause widespread starvation in countries like the Philippines.

He said that although the Philippines is considered as an agricultural nation, its food consumption is largely dependent on imports, including its staple food which is rice.

Global events, climate change, the booming economy of China, growing population and changing diet patterns are also conspiring together to push for a global food price surge.

"Most of the things that we eat and drink, from our early morning pandesal (buns) and coffee, to the rice and beef steak tagalog that we eat for lunch have imported components, from the flour that was used to make the bread and the feed that was used to nourish the cows. With a very weak economy, the Philippines is completely vulnerable to the rising cost of food commodities around the world," the Iloilo solon said.

Nomura, in its report, listed the Philippines as the 13th among 80 nations which is most vulnerable based on its Food Vulnerability Index (NFVI), with Bangladesh as the most vulnerable and New Zealand as least vulnerable to high food prices.

The Iloilo lawmaker said that apart from shrinking land areas for food production and the diminishing number of people who are in the food production business, the food price surge is also caused by China's booming economy, with its 1.3 billion population getting the biggest share in terms of global food consumption.

And with it's huge dollar reserves, he said China can easily outbid any nation in getting on to of the priority list on food and fuel imports, leaving the Philippines at the bottom of the queue in the event of global food and fuel shortage.

"The solution therefore if we want to survive a seemingly inevitable global food crisis is for us to be able to sustain our own domestic requirement. The government and even Congress should act fast in strengthening our food security program," he said.

Meanwhile, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) Director-General William Dar, said Global Agri-Business Incubation Conference is aimed at looking at how agribusinesses can provide an impetus towards shifting agriculture from a subsistence to a market-oriented mode, making it an attractive and viable business venture through agri-business incubation.

"We also look at how agri-business incubators have helped institute in terms of effecting better lab-to-land delivery and improving its revenue streams," he said.

In the Philippines, the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in Nueva Ecija pioneered the putting up of a agri-food business incubators with a funding support of P29 million from the Department of Science and Technology.

Dr. Ed Marzan of the CLSU, one of the participant in the conference, said that the state university is now in the process of selecting possible incubators for the project.

He said they have initially identified 10 incubatees -- scented rice, upgrading of goat breeds, super male tilapia production, mango, mushroom, and tomato, among others.

Marzan said they have targetted to finish this March the screening of the initial incubatees.