Developing Countries Benefiting from Biotech Crops – Report

This week, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a nonprofit organization committed to delivering benefits of agricultural biotechnology to developing countries, released a report on the global status of genetically modified crops.

Here are its key highlights:

• The adoption of genetically modified crops globally increased by 13 per cent in 2006, to reach 252 million acres.
• The number of farmers planting genetically modified crops increased to 10.3 million farmers, up from 8.5 million farmers in 2005.
• About 90 per cent of these farmers practice small-scale agriculture and are from developing countries.
• Since the commercialization of the first genetically modified crop in 1996, accumulated hectarage currently stands at 1.4billion acres, a 60-fold increase.
• In 2006, the number of countries planting biotech crops increased from 21 to 22 with the European Union country Slovakia, planting genetically modified maize for the first time and bringing the total number of countries planting biotech crops in the EU to six out of 25.
• The report further notes that half of the countries currently growing genetically modified crops are from the developing world.
• In 2006, India, the largest cotton growing country in the world, tripled the area under genetically modified cotton cultivation to 3.8 million acres.
• From the genesis of commercialization in 1996 to 2006, herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait followed by insect resistance and stacked genes for the two traits.
• Between 1996 and 2005, the accumulated global net economic benefits of biotech crops to farmers has been US$27 billion (US$13 to developing countries and US$14 for industrial countries).

Reading through this report, one concludes that biotech crops’ acceptance throughout the world continues to grow. Perhaps of significant importance is the finding that 90 per cent of farmers who grew genetically modified crops for the first time in 2006 were from developing countries. This demonstrates increasing eagerness by farmers in developing countries to grow genetically modified crops. And the outcome has been impressive. Of US$ 27 billion global net value of genetically modified crops, half of it has been realized in developing countries, discrediting the argument by anti-biotechnology activists that industrialized countries are the prime beneficiaries of GM crops.

This latest ISAAA report is yet further evidence that biotech crops have a place in today’s agriculture. The report also sends a clear message to governments, religious organizations, scientists and nongovernmental groups opposed to biotech crops not to put unnecessary hurdles on farmers keen on growing biotech crops.