What was once considered as a poor man’s vegetable is now being groomed as a high value crop in the Philippines.

Soil expert and agronomist Dr. Ladha from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has received the 2011 International Service in Agronomy Award from the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) for his work in research, training, and extension – especially in South Asia.

An international team of scientists, funded in the UK by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), has sequenced the genome of a Chinese cabbage variety of a plant called Brassica rapa, a close relative of oilseed rape.

In 2010, just 15 years after the first biotech crops were commercialized, farmers in 29 countries planted and produced biotech crops on 148 million hectares (366 million acres), according to a report published earlier this year by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).