The cultivation of genetically-modified (GM) crops expanded with more farmers in many countries adopting new varieties of disease-resistant crops.
Dr. Clive James, chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA), at the launching of a report on the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2011 held at the Hyatt Hotel in Manila on Wednesday, said the rapid expansion of hectarage devoted to GM crops confirms the acceptance of such crops in many regions of the world.
James said there is a growth of GM adoption worldwide and revealed the advances made by biotech crops in Asia, Latin America, Africa, North America and even in Europe and Australia.
He said strong growth continued with a double-digit increase of 12 million hectares, at an annual growth rate of 8 percent, reaching 160 million hectares, up from 148 million hectares in 2010.
A 94-fold increase from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 160 million hectares in 2011 makes biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history.
The most compelling testimony to biotech crops is that, from 1996 to 2011, millions of farmers in 29 countries worldwide made more than 100 million independent decisions to plant and replant an accumulated 1.25 billion hectares.
This means risk-averse farmers have trust and confidence that biotech crops would deliver sustainable and substantial, socio-economic and environmental benefits.
Of the 29 countries planting biotech crops in 2011, 19 were developing and 10 were industrial countries.
James said the top 10 countries each grew more than one million hectares and they provide a broad-based, worldwide foundation for diversified growth in the future.
In 2011, a record 16.7 million farmers, up 1.3 million or 8 percent from 2010, grew biotech crops—notably over 90 percent, or 15 million, were small resource poor farmers in developing countries.
James noted that biotech crops are now planted in more than 148 million hectares of farms, many of which are maintained by smallholder farmers and subsistence food producers.
Since biotech crops like Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn can increase output per unit area, the cultivation of GM crops actually reduces the pressure on transforming more areas into agricultural zones. [PNA]
