The development of biosafety guidelines in Thailand began in 1990 and the drafting of Biosafety Guidelines was completed in June 1992. The Guidelines which have been published and circulated among research institutes deal with laboratory practices and the releases of GMOs into the environment. The National Biosafety Committee (NBC) was established in January 1993. It was also strongly recommended that an Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) be established at various universities, government departments, research institutes, regulatory agencies as well as private agencies.
There have been a number of applications or requests for field trials of transgenic materials from many Transnational Companies. However, only a few cases have received approval for testing: (1) the field trial for the production of seeds of genetically modified tomato plants, Flavr Savr tomato of Calgene Company, in 1994 and 1995-1996, and (2) field testing of Monsanto B.t. cotton in 1996 under contained netted screen house.
The management of field testing of transgenic plants has been handled in cooperation with various research institutes. The IBC should be responsible for research work at the respective institutes in consultation with the NBC. The NBC is acting as "Technical Advisory Committee" of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) with the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) as its secretariat. Therefore, the application for field testing should be sent to the Director General of the Department of Agriculture (DOA), MOAC, with a copy to the NBC. The NBC will, after careful consideration of the proposal, provide its recommendation to the DOA for final consideration and approval. The monitoring of field testing has been jointly carried out by the NBC and DOA through the sub-committee on the " Monitoring of Field Testing of GMOs", which includes field visits, progress and final reports.