February 3, 2015

India now fourth largest cultivator of GM crops

At 11.6 million hectares, India's genetically modified (GM) crops had positioned the country at an admirable fourth spot in terms of cultivation during 2014.

While there's much catchup for India's GM plantations to match that of the US (73.1 million hectares), Brazil (42.2 million hectares) and Argentina (24.3 million hectares), the country had in fact towered over Asian rival, China, which recorded a lower 3.9 million hectares.

Both nations are involved in the plantings of GM crops which were mainly Bt cottons, GMOs that are capable of producing chemicals harmful to certain insects.

In India, the proliferation of GM crops is widely connected to controversial agri-biotech giant, Monsanto, the maker of Bt cotton. Occupying 11.57 million hectares in the country during 2014, the GMO covered 96% of local cotton plantations.

In addition, it helped to triple India's cotton production to 40 million bales last year, compared to the 13 million bales recorded in 2002, the year of it debut.

"We need to extend GM technology to more crops... so that (Indian) farmers benefit from competition and faster commercialisation", said Bhagirath Choudhary, the director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications' (ISAAA) South Asia Office.

C.D Mayee, who serves on ISAAA's board of directors, also noted of the significant step that the government in the western Indian state of Maharashtra took by permitting field trials of five new GM crops.

"...we hope to see more farmers adopting this technology in the coming years", Mayee said.

The overall global cultivation of GM crops had reached 181.5 million hectares last year, compared to the 175.2 million hectares recorded in 2013, according to ISAAA.