Global area planted to GM crops hits 52.6 million hectares in 2001

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – The global area planted to genetically modified (GM) or transgenic crops reached 52.6 million hectares in 2001.

The hectare was a hefty 19 percent increase over that of the previous year, which was 44.2 million hectares, it was reported by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA). The report was prepared by Dr. Clive James, chairman of the ISAAA board of directors.

In a report titled "Global Review of Commercialized Transgenic Crops:2001", a copy of which was furnished The STAR, ISAAA said that the GM area for 2001 was planted by 5.5 million farmers in 13 countries.

Four of the 13 countries grew 99 percent of the global transgenic crop area.

The United States topped the list with 35.7 million ha (68 percent); followed by Argentina, 11.8 million ha (22 percent); Canada, 3.2 million ha (6 percent); and China, 1.5 million ha (3 percent).

GM crop hectarage also increased in Australia (200,000 ha or 37 percent) and South Africa (200,00 ha or 33 percent).

Modest increases were reported for the other six countries that grew GM crops in 2001–Mexico, Bulgaria, Uruguay, Romania, Spain, Indonesia, and Germany (all 100,000 ha).

ISAAA noted that Indonesia, the first Southeast Asian country to commercialize GM crop production, reported commercializing a transgenic crop, Bt cotton, for the first time in 2001.

Globally, the principal transgenic GM crop was GM soybean, occupying 33.3 million ha (63 percent of global area) in 2000.

It was followed by GM corn at 9.8 million ha (19 percent), transgenic cotton at 6.8 million ha (13 percent), and GM canola at 2.7 million ha (5 percent).

The other GM crops planted were potato, squash, and papaya, all less than 100,000 each.

Since genetically modified crops were first planted in 1996 up to 2001, global area of these crops increased more than 30-fold–from 1.7 million ha to 52.6 million.

"More than one-fourth of the global transgenic crop area of 52.6 million in 2001, equivalent to 13.5 million ha, was grown in developing countries where growth continued to be strong," ISAAA reported.

During the 1996-2001 period, herbicide tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait of transgenic crops, with insect resistance second. In 2001, herbicide tolerance, deployed in soybean, corn, and cotton, occupied 77 percent of the 52.6 million hectares, with 7.8 million ha planted to Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) crops equivalent to 15 percent, and stacked genes for herbicide tolerance and insect resistance deployed in both cotton and corn occupying eight percent of the global transgenic area in 2001.

ISAAA pointed out that the experience of the first six years of commercializing GM crop production, during which a cumulative 175 million ha of GM crops were planted globally in 16 countries, has met the expectations of millions of large and small farmers in both industrial and developing countries.

"The indications appear to be positive for the future of crop biotechnology,"ISAAA concluded.