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| Global spread of GM crops saw setback last year |
| Latha Jishnu / New Delhi Mar 01, 2010, 01:12 IST |
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Bt proponents’ prediction of imminent surge failed to materialise
India is among the handful of countries where the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops increased last year. However, in most parts of the world, GM crops faced a setback. A just-released, industry-sponsored report on the growth of GM crops reveals that Brazil and the US were the only two countries to have recorded a substantial increase in acreage under GM technology, while single-crop India (cotton), along with Canada, Argentina and South Africa, which have three-four GM crops each, recorded small gains.
China, which grows six food and commercial crops, recorded a drop in 2009, as did Paraguay. These are the eight countries that have a substantial presence, of more than a million hectares under such crops. Most of the remaining 17 countries that show up on the global GM map have as little as 5,000 hectares under these crops. Altogether, GM crops account for just 2.7 per cent of world farmland and 2009 did not bear out the industry’s prediction that biotech crops were poised for a new wave of growth. The forecast was made by the industry-sponsored International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
If anything, the reverse has been the case. The European Union showed a significant drop in cultivation of GM maize, the only crop approved for cultivation. Most of this was grown in Spain, but there was a four per cent drop in the area under this crop, with five of seven major maize-growing regions posting a decline. The other bad news is that Australia’s vast farming tracts remained impervious to GM, with the area sown remaining static at 0.2 million hectares.
LIMITED EXPANSION
Global area under biotech crops in 2009 |
| Rank |
Country |
Area |
Biotech crops
(million hectares) |
| 1 |
USA |
64.0 |
Soyabean, maize, cotton,
canola, squash, papaya,
alfalfa, sugarbeet |
| 2 |
Brazil |
21.4 |
Soyabean, maize, cotton |
| 3 |
Argentina |
21.3 |
Soyabean, maize, cotton |
| 4 |
India |
8.4 |
Cotton |
| 5 |
Canada |
8.2 |
Canola, maize, soyabean,
sugarbeet |
| 6 |
China |
3.7 |
Cotton, tomato, poplar,
papaya, sweet pepper |
| 7 |
Paraguay |
2.2 |
Soyabean |
| 8 |
South Africa |
2.1 |
Maize, soyabean, cotton |
| 9 |
Uruguay |
0.8 |
Soyabean, maize |
| 10 |
Bolivia |
0.8 |
Soyabean |
| 11 |
The Philippines |
0.5 |
Maize |
| 12 |
Australia |
0.2 |
Cotton, canola |
| 13 |
Burkina Faso |
0.1 |
Cotton |
| 14 |
Spain |
0.1 |
Maize |
| 15 |
Mexico |
<0.1 |
Cotton, soyabean |
| 16 |
Chile |
<0.1 |
Maize, soyabean, canola |
| 17 |
Colombia |
<0.1 |
Cotton |
| 18 |
Honduras |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| 19 |
Czech Republic |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| 20 |
Portugal |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| 21 |
Romania |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| 22 |
Poland |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| 23 |
Costa Rica |
<0.1 |
Cotton, soyabean |
| 24 |
Egypt |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| 25 |
Slovakia |
<0.1 |
Maize |
| Source: Clive James, 2009 |
ISAAA’s founder-chairman, Clive James is, however, pinning his hopes on a biotech boom on China having given biosafety clearances to biotech insect-resistant rice and phytase maize. China is the world’s largest rice producer and the second largest maize grower and this decision, taken in November 2009, could have global implications. But, biotech experts pointed out that commercialisation is still a long way off because the crops have to go through three years of mandatory field trials before they could be commercialised.
The ISAAA report, Global status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops 2009, has sparked a controversy. Several agriculture experts and anti-GM activists have questioned its assumptions. Says G V Ramanjaneyulu, executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in Hyderabad: “The data that ISAAA presents to show that area under GM crops is increasing is always selective. If you look at the US statistics taken from the Department of Agriculture (USDA), you’ll see that only the area under herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops is increasing. Insect-resistant Bt cotton or corn remains almost static. What you find is that 77 per cent of GM crops are HT and only 22 per cent are BT. In fact, Bt soybean is non-existent.”
The US is the world largest GM user, with 64 million hectares under its belt in 2009, up from 62.5 million hectares in 2008. The only countries to come anywhere close are Brazil and Argentina, both with slightly over 21 million hectares given over to GM crops.
The ISAAA report shows overall GM acreage grew seven per cent in 2009 and a spokesman for the organisation in India told Business Standard the drop in GM growth in 2009 was due to several unforeseen factors, such as drought in China. He pointed out that Burkina Faso (in West Africa) had made huge strides in its use of Bt cotton, from just two per cent of total cotton in 2008 to a substantial 29 per cent or 400,000 hectares last year. As for the steep decline in Europe, he said, “the EU is out of step with the rest of the world”.
The other reason for the slow growth in 2009 is that “the adoption rate for all the principal GM crops (soybean, maize, cotton, canola) and others have already reached the optimal adoption level globally,” according to the ISAAA representative in Delhi. “It is important to note that 77 per cent of the 90 million hectares of soybean planted globally were GM. India imports five million tonnes of soy oil from Brazil, Argentina and the US, which is all from GM soybean.”
The bigger controversy is over ISAAA’s claim that biotech crops are vital for achieving food security and “a critical component” in the effort by countries to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. But, GMWatch pointed out that “very little of this (GM) production went directly to feed people, as most went into animal feed (GM maize, soy and canola), industrial scale biofuels (GM maize, soy and canola) or to produce cotton.” GMWatch, founded in 1998, is an organisation that seeks to counter the claims of the biotech industry and its supporters.
This issue was also taken up by GM Freeze, another activist organisation. Its spokesman, Pete Riley, pointed out that the GM industry continues mainly to produce animal feed and biofuels. “The lack of labelling of food products from GM-fed animals has left the majority of people in the world in the dark and enabled the trade in GM soybeans and maize for animal feed to continue.”
For Ramanjaneyulu, a former Indian Council of AgriculturaI Research scientist, the biggest problem with the ISAAA report is the veracity of the statistics. “The data seems to be based on extrapolation. For example, in 2008, it showed 7.6 million hectares under Bt cotton, while the total area under cotton is 9.4 million hectares, about 81 per cent of total cotton area. How is this possible when the Indian seed industry data on seed sales does not match this amount of cultivation?”
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