Biotech crop plantings have increased ~113-fold since 1996, with an accumulated area of 2.5 billion hectares, showing that biotechnology is the fastest adopted crop technology in the world. In countries with long years of high adoption, particularly the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and India, adoption rates of major crops are at levels close to 100%, indicating that farmers favor this crop technology over the conventional varieties. More farmers’ and consumers’ needs, more diverse biotech crops with various traits became available in the market in 2018. These biotech crops include; potatoes with non-bruising, non-browning, reduced acrylamide and late blight resistant traits; insect resistant and drought tolerant sugarcane; non-browning apples; and high oleic acid canola and safflower.
The ISAAA report also highlighted the following key findings:
- The top 5 countries with the largest area of biotech crops planted (USA, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and India) collectively occupied 91% of the global biotech crop area.
- Biotech soybean reached the highest adoption worldwide, covering 50% of the global biotech crop area.
- The area of biotech crops with stacked traits continued to increase and occupied 42% of the global biotech area.
- Farmers in 10 Latin American countries planted 79.4 million hectares of biotech crops.
- Nine countries in Asia and the Pacific planted 19.13 million hectares of biotech crops.
- In Asia, Indonesia planted for the first time a drought tolerant sugarcane developed through a public (University of Jember) and private (Ajinomoto Ltd.) partnership.
- The Kingdom of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) joined South Africa and Sudan in planting biotech crops in Africa, with the introduction of IR cotton. Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi granted approvals for planting IR cotton opening Africa to biotech crop adoption.
- In Europe, Spain and Portugal continued to adopt biotech maize to control European corn borer.
- More area planted to biotech crops for farmer and consumer needs included potatoes with non-bruising, non-browning, reduced acrylamide and late blight resistant traits; non-browning apples; insect resistant eggplant; and low lignin alfalfa, among others.
- New crops and trait combinations in farmer fields included insect resistant and drought tolerant sugarcane; high oleic acid canola and safflower.
- Various food, feed and processing approvals for Golden Rice, Bt rice, herbicide tolerant cotton, low gossypol cotton, among others.
- Cultivation approvals for planting in 2019 include new generation herbicide tolerant cotton and soybean, low gossypol cotton, RR and low lignin alfalfa, omega-3 canola, and IR cowpea, among others.
With the continuously increasing adoption of biotech crops worldwide, farmers are at the forefront of reaping numerous benefits. “We were fed up with weeding and spraying pesticides to control bollworms and weeds. When the technology was introduced, we rapidly picked it up,” said Frans Mallela, a farmer from Limpopo Province, South Africa.
To buy a copy of the “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2018” report, visit www.isaaa.org. You can also access the report’s executive summary by visiting the aforementioned site.
