Date:20/01/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/01/20/stories/2003012002671200.htm

National

'Global acreage under GM crops increasing'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 19. Despite protests from environmental groups across the world, genetically modified crops appear to be here to stay, going by a report released recently by an international organisation.

According to the report, agricultural area under GM crops had increased by 12 per cent during 2002, continuing the trend of a double-digit pace for the sixth consecutive year.

In terms of absolute numbers, this meant that the global acreage under biotech crops had increased by 6.1 million hectares during the year, taking the total global biotech acreage to 58.7 million hectares.

Among the various crops, biotech corn was found to have the fastest growth during the year, with the acreage under the crop increasing by 27 per cent to 12.4 million hectares. It was followed by biotech canola, with its coverage increasing by 11 per cent to 3 million hectares.

A highlight was that for the first time, the acreage under genetically modified soyabean crop, growing by 10 per cent to 36.5 million hectares, exceeded more than 50 per cent of the global soyabean crop area.

The report, prepared by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) — an organisation with a world-wide network of centres designed to help in the sharing of crop biotechnology applications — also notes that nearly six million farmers in 16 countries chose to plant biotech crops in 2002, up from five million farmers in 13 countries in 2001 and that more than three-quarters of them were "poor farmers in developing countries".

Another significant feature brought out by the report is that China continued to be one of the leading growers of biotech crops, with Bt cotton production in the country increasing by 28 per cent to 2.1 million hectares, making more than half of China's cotton crop biotech for the first time.

Releasing the report during a worldwide teleconference, Clive James, chairman and founder of ISAAA, said the high adoption rate was a strong vote of confidence in biotech crops, reflecting the farmers' need for and satisfaction with the technology. The growers were finding that biotechnology offered the only viable solution to protect crops from economically devastating pests.