Area Planted to Biotech Crops Grows Past 100 Million Hectares

Filed in archive Corporate and Industrial News , Food and Agriculture , Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics on January 22, 2007

According to an annual report released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), there has been a widespread and rapid adoption of biotech crops in 2006 around the globe, and in the developing countries, in particular.

"More than 90 percent or 9.3 million farmers growing biotech crops last year were small, resource-poor farmers from the developing world, allowing biotechnology to make a modest contribution to the alleviation of their poverty," James said. "Millions of small, resource-poor farmers will turn to the potential biotech crops offer in the next decade."
In fact, the report indicated that the growth of biotech crop adoption was substantially higher in the developing world at 21 percent versus the industrialized nations where adoption grew 9 percent. Developing countries now account for 40 percent of the global biotech crop area.

The key growth centers identified around the globe were:
United States, accounting for the greatest absolute acreage increase in 2006 with the addition of 4.8 million hectares.
Brazil, with an increase of 22 percent to total 11.5 million hectares of soybeans and biotech cotton
India is emerging as a key leader in Asia, with the most substantial percentage increase at 192 percent or 2.5 million hectares to total 3.8 million hectares.
South Africa, almost tripling its biotech crop area primarily with Bt white maize and Bt yellow maize
Spain, planting 60,000 hectares in 2006, and five other EU countries reported to have a five-fold increase in plantings from 1,500 hectares in 2005 to about 8,500 hectares in 2006.

See the executive summary for further info, or you may purchase a copy of Brief 35: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2006.