March 27, 2009

Brazilian farmers are using more genetically modified soy and corn products in the 2008-09 crop, consulting firm Agroconsult said Thursday (March 26).

Brazil's farmers planted 58.2 percent of their soy using genetically modified products, compared to 49.6 percent in 2007-08, Andre Pessoa, director of Agroconsult, told reporters in Sao Paulo.

Genetically modified soy accounts for 75.4 percent of the 2008-09 soy crop in the south of Brazil - the highest number for any region, he said. This figure was 68 percent in 2007-08, he added.

Brazilian farmers used genetically modified corn in 1.5 percent of their current crop compared to zero in 2008-09, according to research by Agroconsult.

Agroconsult said 6.4 percent of GM corn products were deployed in the centre-west region such as Goias state.

This low figure is partly due to a shortage of genetically modified corn seeds on sale, he said.

The use of GM corn could jump to 40 percent in the next crop as more seeds become available, he added.

Brazil should harvest 57 million tonnes of soy from the 2008-09 crop and 32.6 million tonnes of corn from its first corn crop.