According to a Maize Trust funded survey on genetically modified (GM) crops conducted in December 2010 in South Africa, maize, soya and cotton are surging ahead at an unprecedented rate for the 13th consecutive season. In 2010 the biotech crop area increased by 100 000 hectares over 2009.
Speaking at a biotech crop press conference in Pretoria, Dr Mulder said that the total biotech crop area in South Africa for 2010 was conservatively estimated at 2.2 million ha. The total maize crop, down 10 percent from 2009, was approximately 2.47 million commercial ha, with 1.90 million ha or 76.9 percent being GM. Single Bt comprised 45.6 percent, herbicide tolerant 13.4 percent, and stacked Bt and herbicide tolerant 41 percent.
The total white maize crop represented 1.522 million ha, with 74.8 percent GM. Yellow maize comprised 0.946 million ha, of which GM was 80.2 percent.
Smallholder farmers planted 19 000 ha of GM maize in 2009. Data for 2010 are not yet available.
For the 10 year period 2001 to 2010, an accumulative 10 million ha of GM maize was planted in the Republic of South Africa, producing a grain crop of over 38 million MT.
In one way or another this grain has been consumed annually by more than 40 million people, as well as 800 million broilers, 1.4 million feedlot cattle and three million pigs slaughtered at formal abattoirs, without any scientific or medically substantiated incidences of adverse effects to humans, animals or the environment.
Soyabean plantings increased by 78 550 ha from 311 450 ha in 2009 to over 390 000 ha. At least 85 percent were biotech herbicide tolerant. As a result of higher cotton prices, the hectares planted to cotton, 100 percent biotech, doubled to 15 000 ha and 95 percent stacked.
The benefit of biotech crops from 1998 to 2009 was US$676 million (R4.7 billion), R1 billion in 2009 alone (Barfoot & Brookes global survey, 2011, forthcoming).
Modern biotechnology addresses production constraints to the benefit of sustainable agriculture and food security. New modifications in field trials combine various insect resistance and herbicide tolerance traits to offer the producer more options in crop management. These include 21 different stacked GM traits in maize and nine in cotton.
Apart from drought tolerant maize, three GM sugarcane lines with growth rate, yield and altered sugar benefits, GM cassava, and a GM table grape are being field tested. A virus resistant chincherinchee is undergoing greenhouse tests.
GM maize with two Bt genes and herbicide tolerance was approved for commercial release in 2010.
Africa
Apart from South Africa, the biotech driving force in Africa and ranked 7th among biotech mega countries, Egypt and Burkina Faso are the only two other African countries growing commercialised GM crops and are expanding rapidly.
In 2010, Burkina Faso in West Africa planted 260 000 ha (115 000 ha in 2009) of Bt cotton farmed by 80 000 farmers on less than three ha of land each. This represents an increase of 126 percent. The cotton seed was researched and produced in South Africa.
Egypt, the first Arab country, planted 2 000 ha of Bt maize. The seed was researched and produced in South Africa.
Several other countries – Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mali and Ghana – are in an advanced stage of conducting research and field trials with numerous GM crops including maize, rice, wheat, cassava, bananas, sorghum and cotton.
Global adoption
Dr Mulder said that according to the ISAAA report (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications) globally in 2010 a record 15.4 million farmers in 29 countries on all six continents grew 148 million ha of GM crops. An increase of 10 percent or 14 million ha.
Three new nations approved biotech crops for the first time. In Pakistan, 600 000 farmers planted 2.5 million ha, in Myanmar 375 000 farmers planted more than 300 000 ha of insect-resistant Bt cotton, and Sweden planted a new biotech high-quality starch “Amflora” potato. Sweden is the first Scandinavian country to commercialise biotech crops. Germany resumed planting GM crops by approving the same biotech potato.
In 2010, 15 years after commercialisation, accumulated global biotech crops exceeded 1 billion hectares.
In addition to the 29 biotech countries another 30 countries have approved the importation of biotech crops for food and feed, totalling 59 countries that have approved the use of biotech crops, either for planting or importing.
Notably, over 90 percent of the 15.4 million biotech farmers in 2010 were small resource-poor farmers. The five principal biotech developing countries – China, India, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa – planted 63 million ha of biotech crops, equivalent to 43 percent of the global total.
Brazil had a record increase of four million ha, totalling 25.4 million ha of soyabeans, maize and cotton – the largest hectare increase worldwide.
In China 6.5 million smallholder farmers planted 3.5 million ha biotech cotton, papayas, poplars, tomatoes and sweet peppers. In India 6.3 million farmers planted 9.4 million ha of Bt cotton equivalent to 86 percent adoption rate.
European Union (EU)
Led by Spain, eight EU countries planted a combined 91193 ha of Bt maize. The EU imports 33 million MT of soyabeans, 95 percent GM, from Argentina, USA and Brazil for food and feed but prevents its own farmers from planting the crop. After joining the EU, Romania was banned from planting RR soyabeans. According to Romania’s minister of agriculture, the EU ban is costing Romania US$131 million annually.
Worldwide, biotech soybean continued to be the principal biotech crop in 2010, occupying 50 percent of global biotech area. Maize was second with 31 percent. Cotton came third, with 14 percent, and canola fourth at 5 percent of global area.
From the outset in 1996, herbicide-tolerance has been the dominant trait. In 2010 these soyabeans, maize, canola, cotton, sugar beet and lucerne occupied 61 percent of the global biotech area of 148 million ha.
Stacked traits are becoming an important future trend. In 2010 a total of 32.3 million ha or 22 percent of the 148 million ha were stacked.
According to ISAAA, future biotech crops include the following:
- Drought tolerant maize, 2012
- Biotech wheat with drought tolerance, disease resistance and grain quality
- Biotech potatoes (2015) resistant to late blight
- Sugar cane with improved agronomic and quality traits
- Disease resistant bananas
- Bt eggplant, tomato, broccoli, cabbage, cassava and sweet potato
- Golden rice with pro-Vitamin A, 2013.
At the current adoption rate, ISAAA predicts that by 2015 an additional potential 150 million ha of biotech crops will be added.
Yield gains and biodiversity/environmental protection
The ISAAA report emphasises the important contribution biotech crops have made to yield gains, increased productivity, biodiversity and environmental conservation.
During the period 1996 to 2009, substantial yield gains of 229 million tons and economic benefits of US$65 billion were generated globally at farm level as a result of reduced input cost, fewer pesticide sprays, less labour and reduced use of fossil fuels. Conventional cropping would have required an additional 75 million ha. Environmental conservation benefitted by saving 393 million kg active ingredient of pesticides. (Brookes & Barfoot, 2011)
