Vietnam is obsolete with genetically modified technology

Despite being the second largest rice exporter in the world, 6.7% of Vietnam's population still lacks food. One of the reasons is that Vietnam has not focused on the application of genetically modified technology for food.

Of the 6.7% of Vietnam's population lacks food, farmers accounted for 8.7%, according to the draft national food security scheme. About 1 million mountainous people eat cassava, corn instead of rice all year round, limited access to rice due to low income and underdeveloped infrastructure.

Professor Bui Chi Buu, of the Southern Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, analyzed: Vietnam is the second largest rice exporter in the world but only meets national food security, but not enough for household level needs.

According to Professor Buu: " In the summer, there are days when the temperature is 37-40oC, the threshold is harmful to plants during the period of pollination and fertilization. Therefore, the study of the genetic mechanism of rice and developing rice lines with extremely high temperature tolerance for rice production in the South ".

Comments at the biotechnology conference took place in Ho Chi Minh City this morning, experts said, while countries around the world have long put on planting and using genetically modified foods to solve problems. For food, Vietnam has not yet begun.

Application of genetically modified technology for food.

To address hunger, developing and finding varieties of climate-proof and insect-resistant transgenic foods is arguably an effective solution. " To increase soybean yield in Vietnam, using genetically modified soybean is a feasible solution ," agreed Tran Thi Cuc Hoa, of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute.

Ms. Hoa said that after a period of experimenting to create genetically modified soybean varieties, the transgenic lines showed higher resistance to worms than non-genetically modified varieties. "This opens up the prospect of the first genetically modified soybean variety in Vietnam to be put into production," Hoa said.

Many experts in the workshop said that biotech seeds and varieties not only help farmers increase income and reduce poverty but also improve consumers' health. " Biotech varieties and plants bring many national benefits such as reducing food prices, maintaining food security and protecting the environment ," said US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Expected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, by 2015, Vietnam will have about 3-4% of new crops originating from genetically modified food put into production.

According to statistics, in 2009, 25 countries planted 134 million hectares of genetically modified crops, accounting for 9% of the total crop area worldwide. In addition, 32 other countries have approved the import of biotech crops. More than 14 million farmers around the world grow biotech crops.