GM crops bounce back with gains in production areas

[MANILA] Global acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops sprang back in 2016 after suffering a decline in 2015, according to estimates by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

According to ISAAA’s商业化生物技术/总经理的全球状况：2016年, released in May, 185.10 million hectares ofGM农作物于2016年种植，显示出比2015年的1.797亿公顷增加。2014年，通用汽车下的全球庄稼面积为1.815亿公顷。

These numbers come from 26 countries, 19 of which are developing countries. The top five countries growing GM crops are the US (72.90 million hectares), Brazil (49.10 million hectares), Argentina (23.80 million hectares), Canada (11.60 million hectares), and India (10.80 million hectares) — totalling 91 per cent of the global area under GM.

“东南亚的一些国家，例如柬埔寨，老挝和缅甸有可能采用生物技术作物，但没有生物安全法规。”

Rhodora Aldemita

Soybean accounted for 50 per cent of the global area under GM crops in 2016. It was followed by maize (33 per cent), cotton (12 per cent), and canola (5 per cent). Other GM crops available in the market today include sugar beet, papaya, squash, aubergine and potato.

The non-profit ISAAA estimates that生物技术crop planting increased 110-fold in the 1996—2016 decade, with an accumulated area of 2.1 billion hectares. As the “fastest adopted crop technology in recent times”, biotechnology has helped alleviate poverty and hunger, benefiting 18 million small farmers and their families.

However, according to the ISAAA media release, “the promises of biotech crops can only be unlocked if farmers are able to buy and plant these crops.”

菲律宾的GM玉米农民Rosalie Ellasus，亚洲农民网络的代表说：“通用技术的农民很少或根本没有资本采用此工具[GM技术]。。网。

实际上，通用技术技术的采用和接受并没有受到挑战亚太region.

Isaaa高级项目官Rhodora Aldemita告诉您：“柬埔寨，老挝和缅甸等东南亚的一些国家有可能采用生物技术作物，但没有生物安全法规。”。网。“Others like Myanmar have adopted GM crops while still drawing up regulations,” she adds.

Indonesia is yet to firm up feed regulations, the Philippines is struggling with regulations that have halted biotech crop approvals, and Thailand’s strict regulations only allow field testing, Aldemita says.

India has restricted GM technology to non-edible crops like cotton. Approvals for GM aubergine and GM mustard have not gone beyond field trials, with public litigation and provincial governments blocking attempts at commercialising these staples.

“We have concerns regarding the biosafety of GM food crops that are similar to what we see in most of Europe,” Aruna Rodrigues, the main petitioner against the technology in India’s Supreme Court, tells。网。

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