19 February 2009
Record Number of Farmers Growing Biotech Crops
Prospects of future biotech growth encouraging, report says
Washington — A record 13.3 million farmers in 25 countries are using agricultural biotechnology to help meet the world's food demands, according to a leading agricultural research group.
In 2008, the 13th year since biotech crops were first commercialized, farmers planted a record 125 million hectares (309 million acres) of genetically improved crops. That was 10.7 million more hectares than in 2007, the International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) reports.
“Biotech provides solutions for today's farmers in the form of plants that yield more per [hectare], resist diseases and insect pests and reduce farmers’ production costs,” said Sharon Bomer Lauritsen, executive vice president of the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Growth prospects for biotech through 2015 are encouraging, according to Clive James, author of the group's report, Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008.
In Africa, biotech farming began in two additional countries in 2008, the report states. In Egypt, farmers began planting genetically modified maize. In Burkina Faso, farmers started to raise biotech cotton. The continent “has perhaps the greatest need and most to gain” from the agricultural technology, James said.
Combined with South Africa's previously established biotech program, genetically modified food projects have established footholds in each of Africa's three main regions, helping policymakers and farmers in surrounding countries see the value of biotechnology to food security, James said.
In 2008, seven countries in the European Union were planting biotech maize commercially, increasing the numbers of hectares devoted to biotech 21 percent over the previous year, according to the report.
European farmers are coming to realize biotechnology's potential to increase incomes and reduce pesticide use, the report said. In February, EU members will meet to decide on approval of new biotech crops, according to Marcella Szymanski of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs.
“Farmers everywhere are waiting and watching,” she told America.gov.
The report says that in 2008 some countries that had previously adopted a biotech crop added new ones to their soils. In the case of Bolivia, farmers started to grow biotech soy. Brazilian farmers began growing biotech maize and Australian farmers started raising biotech canola.
Modified soybeans continued to be the principal biotech crop cultivated in 2008, occupying 53 percent of all biotech hectares. It was followed by modified maize, cotton and canola. In addition to those crops, the United States grows biotech papaya, squash, alfalfa and sugar beets.
INCREASING UNDERSTANDING OF BIOTECH
Since 2003, the State Department has funded programs to increase understanding of agricultural biotechnology and to address consumer and environmental safety concerns.
In 2008, the bureau expanded its biotech outreach efforts to include a focus on food security and biofuels. It sent U.S. experts to Peru, for instance, to explain to government officials the benefits of agricultural biotech in biofuel production, Szymanski said.
U.S.-sponsored specialists met with farmers, university students and politicians in Germany and participated in a biotechnology conference in Vietnam. The United States sent experts to South Africa to talk with legislators about conducting risk assessments for agricultural biotechnology. Experts also visited Egypt to urge passage of legislation that would smooth the way for new biotech approvals.
Officials in some countries lack adequate information to create policies covering biosafety, Szymanski said.
The World Health Organization has emphasized the importance of agricultural biotechnology to health because it produces more nutritious food and food with fewer allergenic characteristics, James reports.
The crops also benefit health because they require fewer pesticides and reduce fuel consumption and harmful carbon emissions, he said.
Leaders of the world's eight major economies have called for agricultural research to accelerate, James said.
The United States cultivated the most biotech hectares in 2008, followed by Argentina, Brazil, India, Canada, China, Paraguay and South Africa.
Biotech crops have been widely adopted by American farmers since their commercial introduction in 1996, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Soybeans and cotton engineered to tolerate herbicides have been the most widely adopted in the United States, followed by insect-resistant cotton and maize.
The executive summary of the ISAAA report is available on the group’s Web site.
An overview of biotechnology crops in the United States is available on the Department of Agriculture Web site.
