Vietnam is expected to widely recognize genetically modified (GM) crops with the commercialization of some crops hopefully at the end of this year.

Le Huy Ham, rector of the Agricultural Genetics Institute, shared the expectation at a conference on GM crops held by the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) in Hanoi on Tuesday.

According to ISAAA Emeritus Chair Clive James, Vietnam has taken prudent steps in evaluating, researching and experimenting GM crops over the years. The recognition of four GM corn varieties meeting requirements for food and animal feed production last year made the country the 29th to approve GM crops.

Many countries started to plant a number of GM crops last year. More GM crops are planned for cultivation in the coming time, including Bt eggplant in Bangladesh, drought-tolerant sugarcane in Indonesia and virus-resistant bean in Brazil.

James said between 1996 and 2014, the total acreage of GM crops increased by more than 100 times, from 1.7 million hectares to 181.5 million hectares.

GM crops help bring in higher productivity, less use of fertilizer and pesticides, reduce impact on the environment and adapt more to climate change, he added.

Europe has recently come up with an important decision allowing member states to decide on planting GM crops or not.

Evaluating the effectiveness of GM crops in Vienam, renowned agriculturist Vo Tong Xuan said the corn varieties Vietnam is using are already of good quality. GM corn is preeminent as it is pest and grass-resistant.

“I expect GM crops to be grown widely this year, not just in the northern region, so that we can have better bases to assess GM varieties. We are later than China and the Philippines in cultivating GM crops,” Xuan said.

He added that the Philippines has grown 400,000 hectares of GM crops.

Nevertheless, Xuan admitted it is not easy for Vietnam to produce GM crops, so the country will have to depend on foreign companies as the research cost is high.

Moreover, the cultivation of corn and soy beans cannot help replace imports of such farm produce as expected. Vietnam currently imports 90% of corn and soy beans to process human foods and animal feed, according to Xuan.

To replace imports, the output of corn and soy beans farmed domestically should be equivalent or slightly lower than that. However, in reality, farming productivity does not completely depend on varieties but techniques, weather conditions and machines.

Xuan explained growing soy beans and corn in the Mekong Delta region is unlikely as it is impossible to cultivate corn on paddy fields and there are too many pests for soy plants in the southern region.

As a result, Vietnam still has to reply on corn and soy bean imports.

According to James, each country has different farming conditions but if Vietnam grows GM crops, productivity will be higher than that of traditional crops and its dependence on material imports can be reduced.

SGT