Senior US advisor on biotechnology Jack Bobo says locally developed biotech crops and other technologies are crucial to agriculture’s adaptation to climate change and the private sector must pitch in to make them succeed.

Bobo recently discussed the impact of El Niño and other aberrant weather systems with officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

He warned that not all climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and technologies will enhance global food security, and a clear and appropriate climate policy by every nation should come into play.

“There are a lot of calls to make technology freely available but you just can’t take an insect-resistant corn from the US, for example, and bring it to the Philippines. There should be a regulatory review and approval for these things,” Bobo said.

For the US biotech expert, having access to private sector investments in research and development (R&D) and technology is crucial to climate change mitigation.

“A system should be in place for private-public sector partnerships to make it work,” he stressed.
Based on the US experience, Bobo said that when technology is available, farmers will be willing to pay for it.

Citing the previously widely-circulated Stern Review on the economics of climate change, he said the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) highlighted the fact that while there is a range of activities that could be undertaken to reduce agricultural emissions, it is not necessarily the case that they will be adopted simply by virtue of the fact that they appear to make sense.

“Farmers are unlikely to adopt practices that will benefit society as a whole if they alone have to bear the cost. Even low-cost mitigation options will not be adopted if the farmer must pay to undertake work from which wider society gains most of the benefit. Government must intervene to overcome this ‘market failure’ and to encourage adoption of mitigation options and introduce wider measures to help reduce emissions,” Bobo said.

He added the Climate Change Act recently signed by President Gloria Arroyo is only focused on crafting and implementing “a national adaptation plan to help Philippine agriculture and other vulnerable sectors cope with the worst effects of altered weathered patterns triggered by global warming.”