Growth of global GM crops slows for first time in 20 years

Source:AFP Published: 2016-4-15 1:05:47

The growth of genetically-modified (GM) crops has dipped for the first time following two decades of steady increases, according to a study released Wednesday.

Twenty years after the first GM plant was marketed, the worldwide acreage of GM crops reached 181.5 million hectares in 2014.

But after 19 years of annual increases, the area planted with biotech seeds fell by 1 percent last year, according to the pro-GM International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), an industry body.

The group blamed the slowdown on the collapse of commodity prices including corn and cotton.

"ISAAA anticipates that total crop hectarage will increase when crop prices improve," the organization said in a press release.

The US, the world's leader in GM foods, saw a 2.2-million-hectare decline in farmland given over to GM crops in 2015.

In South Africa, severe drought reduced acreage of GM corn from 3 million hectares to 2.3 million hectares last year.

And last week Burkina Faso abandoned its GM cotton crop altogether, saying that the project was not profitable.

The ISAAA said that despite challenges, the area devoted to GM crops has "increased 100 times" in the past 20 years and now involves 18 million farmers in 28 countries and regions.

From 1996 to 2014, biotech crops have successfully been grown on a cumulative area of 1.8 billion hectares.

Five developing countries - Brazil, Argentina, India, China and South Africa - grew almost half of all GM crops in 2015.

GM remains hugely controversial in many countries, stirring sharp debate over the crops' use and impact.

The ISAAA said opponents of GM were "opposed to science/evidence-based regulation" and that demands for "onerous" regulation would hurt poor farmers in developing countries.

AFP

Posted in: Industries

blog comments powered by Disqus