HCM CITY — Việt Nam’s rapid progress in research and application of biotechnology in agriculture is contributing to the country’s goals for green growth and farmers’demands, according to experts.

Nguyễn Ngọc Bảo Châu, of the HCM City Open University’s Faculty of Biotechnology, told Việt Nam News that in the last five years “many institutes, universities, centres and startups in the country including HCM City have conducted research and developed effective applications for biotechnology in agriculture”.

Châu was speaking on the sidelines of an international workshop on agricultural biotechnology held yesterday by HCM City Open University.

Researchers in the country have used biotechnologies to improve the quality of seeds as well as plant and animal breeds, he said.

Biotech methods have been able to detect plant diseases rapidly, and have also been  used to create products that prevent disease and pest infestation.

Nguyễn Bảo Quốc of Nông Lâm University said that many global scientists have developed numerous techniques for the detection of microbial pathogens, but these methods are labour- and time-intensive and can be undertaken only in well-equipped labs.

His group has developed an alternative approach for rapid detection of many groups of phytoplasmas (bacteria transmitted to plants by insects) that cause witches’ broom and white leaf disease in longan, cassava and sugarcane plants.

Dương Hoa Xô, director of the Biotechnology Centre of HCM City, said the centre had collected and preserved gene sources, with 360 varieties of orchids, including precious ones that grow in the country’s forests, 124 varieties of bonsai, and 100 varieties of herbs.

A bank for microorganism genes had also been set up, which uses scientific techniques to insert genes with useful characteristics, such as disease-resistance characteristics of one flower to another.