30th anniversary of GM Crops: developing in the controversy(Part 1)

The year of 2013 was the 30th anniversary of the development of GM crops. The first-time success in bringing foreign gene into plants is regarded as an initiation of GM crops. Up to 2013, GM crops have developed for 30 years. Perhaps 30 years ago, no one imagined this technology to be a fastest applied agricultural technology, naturally no one was able to foresee the happening of a most controversial issue which has come up with the promotion of GM crops. Rapid applications cannot avoid debate, but debate cannot stop development. GM crops are expected to continue to develop under the adverse situation despite of the debate, which will be a normal state of GM crops in the years ahead. This essay will present the latest development of GM crops via some indicators, regardless of whether GM crops are an “angel” or a “devil”.

Worldwide Plantation of GM Crops Moving into a Stable Period

The planted area of GM crops all over the world in 2012 reached 170 million hectares, 6.4% up over the 160 million hectares in 20111. A total of 28 countries planted GM crops in 2012, covering planted area of 170 million hectares. US, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and India are the top 5 countries in respect of planted area, where the total area of planted GM crops accounted for nearly 90% of the word total area of GM crops (as shown on Figure 1). US has the largest area of GM crops among all countries; with respect to the 3 crops - cotton, corn and soy, the planted area of GM crops in US accounted for around 90% of the world total planted area of respective GM crops.

Over recent years the growth rate of the globally planted GM crops has slowed down except for Brazil where the growth rate is maintained at a high level; its growing indicators in 2012 show a 21% increase over 2011.


Fig.1 Sketch of Planted Area of GM Crops

The blue area refers to the global 1.5 billion hectares of the available cultivated land area
The yellow area refers to the global 170 million hectares of planted GM crops in 2012
The orange area refers to the 18 million hectares of planted GM crops in other countries excluding that of the top 5 countries in 2012

So far as the categories of crops are concerned, the globally planted GM crops are mostly soy, corn, cotton and rapeseed in an evenly divided quantity. Among the globally planted soy, cotton, corn and rapeseed in 2012, their proportion of GM crops respectively accounted for 81%, 81%, 35% and 30%.
As regards to the trait of GM crops, GM crops with herbicide tolerance trait are of the largest planted area.

Herbicide Tolerance Trait
So far the developed GM crops with herbicide tolerance trait mainly cover soy, corn, rapeseed, cotton, sugarbeet and alfalfa. The globally planted area of GM crops with herbicide tolerance trait in 2012 has increased by 7% YOY, having reached 100 million hectares, which accounts for 59% of the world total planted area of GM crops.

Insect Resistance Trait
So far the developed GM crops with insect resistance trait mainly cover cotton and corn. The globally planted area of GM crops with insect resistance trait in 2012 has increased by 9% YOY, having reached 26.10 million hectares.

Stacked Traits
The plantation of GM crops with stacked traits (2 or above 2 traits) has become more and more popular. The globally planted area of GM crops with stacked traits in 2012 has increased by 4% YOY, having reached 43.70 million hectares.

To be continued......