Philippines: Agricultural Biotechnology Annual

The Philippines has been a pioneer within Asia in adopting biotechnology crops, and recently approved Bt cotton as the 4th genetically engineered (GE) crop cleared for commercial propagation after corn (2002), rice (2021), and eggplant (2022). The Philippines ranked 12th among the 29 countries in the world that planted biotech crops in 2019. In 2022, area planted with biotech corn reached 576,000 hectares. The Philippines is the first country in the world to approve Golden Rice for commercial propagation. Moreover, it is first in Southeast Asia to issue regulatory frameworks on genetically engineered (GE) crops for cultivation and passed a regulation for plants and plant products derived from the use of plant breeding innovations (PBIs), also referred to as New Plant Breeding Techniques (NBTs). The draft policy and regulations on animal biotechnology are under review and targeted for release before the end of 2023 or early in 2024.