Global GM crop planting up 7% in 2009 

 

 

Farmers around the world continue to plant more GM crops than ever - seeding 330 million acres in 2009, about a 7% increase over 2008.

 

The US continues to dominate the world in biotech crops with 158 million acres planted last year, according to a report released Tuesday (Feb 23) by the US-based group International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, or ISAAA.

 

But Brazil had the biggest gains when it came to increasing acreage for biotech crops.

 

About 53 million acres of Brazilian farmland was used last year by 150,000 farmers to grow biotech crops - mostly soy - the ISAAA said in its annual report. That's a 35% increase from 2008. It made Brazil the second-largest biotech crop-producing country in the world in 2009, behind the US.

 

Argentina, which held second place in 2008, fell to third, but still relies much heavier on biotech crops than India, Canada and China - fourth-, fifth- and sixth-largest biotech planting countries.

 

China planted just 9.1 million acres of biotech crops - mostly cotton - last year, but the country's recent approval of GM rice and corn is a sure sign planting will expand soon, said ISAAA chairman and founder Clive James.

 

"These approvals are momentous and have enormous implications for biotech crop adoption not only for China and Asia, but for the whole world," James said. "China's approval of biotech rice and corn will probably facilitate and expedite the decision-making process regarding acceptance and approval of biotech rice, corn and other biotech crops in developing countries."

 

The GM corn and rice must be field tested for two or three years before they can be planted commercially, according to the ISAAA report.

 

The USDA, in an estimate released in last June, said 91% of the US soy crop planted in 2009 would be biotech varieties. For corn, 85% of the domestic crop planted in 2009 was expected to be biotech. The USDA also said 88% of 2009 cotton was anticipated from biotech seeds.

 

India has also adopted insect-resistant cotton but GM foods has not been approved, and an application to commercialise an insect-resistant strain of brinjal (aubergine), one of the country's most important vegetable crops, had been rejected.

 

But James believed that GM plants worldwide were poised for a second wave of growth, driven particularly by biotech rice and the introduction of drought tolerance traits in several crops, starting with corn in 2012.

 

Wheat remains the last big staple crop without approved GM traits, partly because its genetic engineering is technically harder than most other plants and also because of political opposition.

 

However, the political will for GM wheat is growing globally, and China may be the first country to approve GM wheat as early as 2015, said the ISAAA.