Adoption of Biotech crops at a high spirit

Biotech Crops Surge Over 1 Billion Hectares

In just 15 years after commercialization, accumulated biotech crops exceeded 1 billion hectares in 2010  a milestone that signifies biotech crops are here to stay,  according to Clive James author of the annual report released today by ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications).   This indicates that adoption of biotech crops at a high spirit is very much accepted in commercial farming.

In 2010, for the first time, the ten largest biotech crop growing countries all had more than 1 million hectares in production, providing a broad and stable base for future growth. In hectarage rank order, they include: USA (66.8 million), Brazil (25.4 million), Argentina (22.9 million), India (9.4 million), Canada (8.8 million), China (3.5 million), Paraguay (2.6 million), Pakistan (2.4 million), South Africa (2.2 million) and Uruguay (1.1 million). There everywhere is adoption of Biotech crops at a high spirit.  The 1 billionth hectare was planted in 2010 by one of the 15.4 million farmers in 29 countries who now benefit from the technology. With an unprecedented 87-fold increase between 1996 and 2010, biotech crops are the fastest-adopted crop technology in the history of modern agriculture, according to James, chairman and founder of ISAAA.  As Biotech Crops Surge Over 1 Billion Hectares, it is significant that willing for Adoption of Biotech crops at a high spirit is developed in commercial farming.

For the second consecutive year, Brazil had the world’s largest year-over-year increase in absolute biotech crop plantings, adding 4 million hectares in 2010 -- a 19 percent increase -- to grow a total of 25.4 million hectares. Only the United States leads Brazil in total cropland devoted to biotech crops. Australia, which recovered from a multi-year drought, saw the largest proportional year-on-year increase in biotech crop plantings at 184 percent. Burkina Faso followed at 126 percent growth with 80,000 farmers planting 260,000 hectares, a 65 percent adoption rate.

The five principal developing countries growing biotech crops – China, India, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa – planted 63 million hectares of biotech crops in 2010, equivalent to 43 percent of the global total. The 19 among the 29 countries that have adopted biotech crops are developing nations, which grew at a rate of 17 percent or 10.2 million hectares over 2009 compared to only 5 percent growth or 3.8 million hectares in industrialized countries.

According to James, more than 90 percent of biotech crop growers are small-scale farmers. Of the 15.4 million farmers using the technology in 2010, 14.4 million were small-scale, resource-poor farmers in developing countries; these farmers are some of the poorest people in the world and biotech crops are contributing to the alleviation of their poverty, . China and India now have the most small-scale farmers using biotech crops, with 6.5 million Chinese farmers and 6.3 million Indian farmers planting biotech crop seed.

In 2010, three nations grew biotech crops commercially for the first time, and one nation resumed planting biotech crops. Approximately 600,000 farmers in Pakistan and 375,000 farmers in Myanmar, planted insect-resistant Bt cotton, and Sweden (the first Scandinavian country to commercialize biotech crops) planted a new biotech high-quality starch potato approved for industrial and feed use. Germany also planted the same biotech potatoes in 2010, resuming its place among the eight EU nations now growing either biotech maize or potatoes.

Source :- ISAAA Brief 42-2010: Press Release 

               URL for source is as below;  http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/42/pressrelease/default.asp

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