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Socio-economic benefits becoming evident among resource-poor farmers
MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- After a dozen years of commercialization, biotech crops are still gaining ground with another year of double-digit growth and new countries joining the list of supporters, according to a report released today by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). In 2007, biotech crop area grew 12 percent or 30.3 million acres to reach 282.3 million acres, the second highest area increase in the past five years.
In addition to planting more biotech acres, farmers are quickly adopting varieties with more than one biotech trait. These "trait acres" grew at a swift 22 percent, or 64 million acres, to reach 354.9 million acres -- more than double the area increase of 30.3 million acres. New crops were also added to the list as China reported 250,000 biotech poplar trees planted. The insect-resistant trees can contribute to reforestation efforts.
Further, 2 million more farmers planted biotech crops last year to total 12 million farmers globally enjoying the advantages from the improved technology. Notably, 9 out of 10, or 11 million of the benefiting farmers, were resource-poor farmers, exceeding the 10-million milestone for the first time. In fact, the number of developing countries (12) planting biotech crops surpassed the number of industrialized countries (11), and the growth rate in the developing world was three times that of industrialized nations (21 percent compared to 6 percent.)
"With increasing food prices globally, the benefits of biotech crops
have never been more important," said Clive James, chairman and founder of
ISAAA and the report's author. "Already those farmers who began adopting
biotech crops a few years ago are beginning to see socio-economic
advantages compared to their peers who haven't adopted the crops. If we are
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
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| SOURCE International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Copyright©2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved |