Official permission for the growing of genetically modified (GM) crops
on a large scale in Vietnam may not be realized until 2015, said a recent
conference.
The first GM plant to be grown
may be corn, according to a biotechnology conference co-hosted in Ho Chi Minh
City by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the US
Embassy in Vietnam.
Vietnam has imported GM corn and
soybeans from the US and Argentina for animal feeding purposes for about a
decade, said the conference.
This has been necessary thanks to
the lack of domestic raw materials for processing animal feed, said Nguyen Tri
Ngoc, director of the Cultivation Department under the MARD.
“These GM materials don’t affect
human health as they are mostly used to process animal feed,” he said.
Imported GM corn has many
outstanding features over normal crops, including high productivity and better
anti-insect capacity.
However, the planting of such GM
crops needs to follow the general planning for such plants in Vietnam, along
with sound state management and brave scientists pioneering in the field.
Genetically modified plants will
play an important part in triggering the second green revolution in Vietnam so
that the country’s agricultural sector can thrive in the face of climate change
and shrinking agricultural land, said Bui Chi Buu, professor at the Institute
of Southern Agriculture Engineering of Vietnam.
Regarding risks and other harmful
effects created by GM crops, Buu added that the risks are primarily a part of
to people’s imagination, adding that there is no scientific evidence proving
that such problems exist.
In 2008, Vietnam planned to test
GM agricultural crops until 2010 and then grow them on a large scale, but that
has not happened.
Under the government plan,
Vietnam would from 2011 plant GM species of maize, cotton and soybean.
GM technology has become highly
controversial in many countries, praised by some for increasing yields and
improving varieties, and condemned by others for creating
"frankenfoods" that pose dangers to the environment and people's
health, according to AFP.
Environmental group Greenpeace
has called for a worldwide recall of GM foods, with a spokesman saying this
week that distributing them was "like playing Russian roulette with
consumers and public health", AFP reported.
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