Pakistan in top ten BT cotton cultivators

Pakistan became the eighth largest cultivator of genetically modified cotton planting on 2.4 million hectares in 2010. The year saw approximately 600,000 cotton farmers planting 2.4 million hectares of Bt cotton, equivalent to 75 percent of the 3.2 million hectares of cotton (up three percent on the 3.1 million planted in 2009) cultivated nationally. This was disclosed in the Brief 42 of Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops:2010 released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) on Saturday.
The top ten countries of which grew over one million hectares in 2010 are led by the US which leads the pack, growing 66.8 million hectares (45 percent of the global cultivated area), Brazil with 25.4 million hectares (17 percent), Argentina with 22.9 million hectares (16 percent), India with 9.4 million hectares (six percent), Canada with 8.8 million hectares also six percent, China with 3.5 million hectares (two percent) Paraguay with 2.6 million hectares (two percent), Pakistan 2.4 million hectares (two percent), South Africa 2.2 million hectares (two percent) and Uruguay with 1.1 million hectares or one percent of global biotech cultivated area.
Clive James, Founder of ISAAA, in his summary stated that the accumulated hectarage from 1996 to 2010 exceeded one billion hectares (equivalent to the total area of USA or China), clearly signifying the importance of biotech crops in modern agriculture, while three newcomers, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sweden, reported planting biotech crops officially for the first time in 2010 with Germany also resumed planting.
Of the 29 countries mentioned in the report, 19 are developing and only 10 are industrial countries. In addition, a total of 59 countries have approved the use of biotech crops, either for planting or importing. 75 percent of the world’s population lives in the 59 countries. In 2010, a record 15.4 million farmers grew biotech crops — notably over 90 percent, or 14.4 million, were small scale farmers in developing countries. This figure is deemed to be conservative due to the spillover of benefits transferred from biotech crops to conventional farming. Remarkably, since 1996, farmers on a global scale have elected to plant and replant more biotech crops every single year due of the significant benefits they offer, the report underlined.
The brief also pointed out that developing countries grew 48 percent of global biotech crops in 2010 and will exceed industrial countries hectarage before 2015. Biotech growth rate was much faster in developing countries, 17 percent or 10.2 million hectares, in comparison to a relatively low figure of five percent or 3.8 million hectares in the developed world. In India, stellar growth continued for the ninth year, with 6.3 million farmers growing 9.4 million hectares of Bt cotton which is indicated to be a 86 percent adoption rate. In Myanmar, 375,000 small farmers successfully planted 270,000 hectares of Bt cotton, equivalent to a 75 percent biotech adoption for all cotton grown in the country, the report informed.
It was also noted that with the official release of first generation insect resistant cotton varieties and hybrids in 2010, along with expected release of positive traits of biotech cotton in 2011, Pakistan could harvest significant revenue of approximately $800 million per year to its farm economy, assuming a 90 percent adoption rate for biotech cotton. Similarly, the brief points out future prospects which look encouraging for the next five years with the possible development of drought tolerant maize by 2012, Golden Rice in 2013 and Bt rice before the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of 2015, to potentially benefit one billion poor people in rice households, in Asia alone.
Of the estimated gain of $64.6 billion in farmer income generated by biotech crops in the first 14 years of commercialisation (1996 to 2009), it is noteworthy that slightly more than half, $32.9 billion was generated in industrial countries and the balance of just less than half, $31.7billion, will be in developing countries. It is pertinent to note that China was the only country to report a significant decrease in biotech acreage in 2010, and the relatively weak cultivation of Bt cotton in China was entirely the result of decreased total plantings of cotton, with percentage adoption increasing marginally by one percent. The decrease in total cotton holdings in China is probably due to the higher priority assigned to the more strategic food and feed crops, a trend that is likely to continue, the brief underlined.