The College of Agriculture (CA) proposed the offering of the degree program and the institution of courses under it to address the need for human resource development in biotechnology, one of the key programs of the University.

The CA holds leadership in agricultural biotechnology research and development in the country for the past 40 years. Its faculty and researchers have actually been involved in the offering of a graduate program on molecular biology and biotechnology. They have also comprised the thinktank behind the development of the national crop biotechnology R & D and biosafety regulations in the country.

In its proposal, the CA pointed out that much of the advances in science and technology have been in biotechnology, particularly in genetic engineering that cuts across disciplines and fields from breeding and genetics, biochemistry, physiology and engineering, to plant, animal, and microbial and environmental sciences. These advances cannot be sustained by the lack of human resource in the field. Only a few universities in the country offer biotechnology or related courses. UPLB started offering the master's and PhD degrees in molecular biology and biotechnology in 1991 and 2001, respectively.

Some of the contributions of biotechnology in agriculture, the CA proposal noted, were in the field of diagnostics for plant and animal diseases, rapid propagation of disease-free planting materials, superior animals through improved reproductive technology, production of pharmaceuticals in microorganisms, plant and animals, more reliable and accurate selection and breeding using molecular markers, and the development of important traits in crops and animals through genetic engineering. Biotechnology is also used for the protection of the environment such as in bioremediation technologies, biofertilizers and biotech crops that use less chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The CA also said that biotechnology-based industry is one of the fastest rising sectors, growing as much as 20 percent per year. In 2006 alone, agricultural biotechnology market was worth US$ 5 billion dollars while the global health biotechnology market earned more than $50 billion dollars.

The new degree program will be interdisciplinary in nature as it will involve and cut across all the existing teaching unit, research institutes and centers of CA. It will promote cooperation in teaching and research; sharing of resources and encouraging scientific innovativeness; bioentrepreneurship; and socio-economic awareness among students, faculty and staff. Promoting the program to invite prospective students to enroll has been in the upswing with advertisements in leading newspapers.