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GLOBAL BIOTECH CROP ADOPTION CONTINUES TO GROW
Mar. 11, 2013
Source: CropLife International reports:
In February, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) released its annual global biotech crop acreage report, which found that farmers worldwide grew 170 million hectares of biotech crops in 2012. Biotech crops are the most rapidly adopted agricultural technology in history - today, they are grown in 28 countries by 17.3 million farmers, a 100-fold increase since they were first commercially planted in 1996.
"There is one principal and overwhelming reason that underpins the trust and confidence of farmers in biotechnology: biotech crops deliver substantial, and sustainable, socio-economic and environmental benefits," said ISAAA Chair and Founder Clive James in a news release.
For the first time in plant biotech history, developing countries planted more biotech crops hectares than industrialized countries in 2012. The rapid acceptance of biotech crops in 20 developing countries demonstrates how scale-neutral the technology is and the myriad of socio-economic and environmental benefits that smallholder farmers enjoy from plant biotechnology.
In several developing countries, biotech crops are enjoying near-100 percent adoption levels - 93 percent (10.8 million hectares) of all the cotton grown in India in 2012 was insect-resistant biotech cotton varieties. In China, 80 percent (4 million hectares) of the country's entire cotton crop was insect-resistant biotech varieties.
Studies suggests that biotech adopters in developing countries enjoy higher farm income from improved yields, better health due to reduced pesticide exposure and greater food security. In the Philippines, for example, farmers growing Bt corn are more likely to surpass the poverty threshold than conventional growers.
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