Top 10 facts about biotech/GM crops in 2014

According to ISAAA, 2014 is the 19th year of commercialization of biotech crops. The experience of the last 19 years of commercialization confirmed the promise of biotech   crops to deliver substantial agronomic, environmental, economic, health, and social benefits to large and small scale farmers worldwide.  

 

Biotech crops are the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history, reflecting farmer satisfaction of their benefits and their high adoption rates.

 

 

Hectarage of biotech crops increased every single year from 1996 to 2014 with 12 years of double digit growth rates.

 

Since the recorded commercialization of GM crops in 1996 up to 2014, several countries have contributed to an unprecedented 100-fold increase in the global area of transgenic crops.

 

 

In 2014, hectarage of biotech crops grew at an annual rate of 3-4%, up by 6.3 million from   175.2 million hectares in 2013.  

 

The top biotech crops in order of hectarage are: soybean, maize, cotton, and canola. Other biotech crops grown in 2014 are: alfalfa, sugar beet, papaya, squash, poplar,   tomato, sweet pepper, and brinjal/eggplant.

 

 

Farmers from Latin America, Asia, and Africa collectively grew 96 million hectares, or 53% of the global 181.5 million hectares of biotech crops in 2014, compared with industrial countries at 85 million hectares, or 47% of the global total.

 

 

Of the 28 countries which planted biotech crops in 2014, 20 were developing and 8 were industrial countries.
 

The 5 lead developing countries in Latin America (Brazil, Argentina), Asia (India, China), and Africa (South Africa) grew 47% of global biotech crops.

 

FACT 5 A record 18 million farmers grew biotech crops in 2014
 

More than 90%, or 16.5 million farmers that grew biotech crops in 2014 are risk-averse, small, resource-poor farmers in developing countries.
 

In the last 19 years, millions of farmers in ~30 countries worldwide have made more than 100 million independent decisions to plant and replant an accumulated hectarage of more than 1.8 billion hectares of biotech crops.

 

FACT 6 The top 5 countries planting biotech crops are USA, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Canada
 

The USA continued to be the lead producer of biotech crops globally with 73.1 million hectares, and average adoption rate of over 90% across all biotech crops.
 

Each of the 10 countries which grew biotech crops in 2014 planted more than 1 million hectares.

 

2014 was the seventh year for farmers in Burkina Faso to plant Bt cotton. In Sudan, more than 30,000 farmers planted Bt cotton in 2014. 
 

South Africa planted 2.7 million hectares of biotech maize, soybean, and cotton in 2014.

 

Spain is the leading country in the EU with 131,538 hectares of Bt maize in 2014.
 

The other EU countries which grew biotech crops in 2014 are: Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia.

 

 

From 1996 to 2013, economic gains at the farm level of US$133.3 billion were generated globally by biotech crops, due to reduced production costs and substantial yield gains.
 

Biotech crops have reduced the amount of pesticides used by ~500 million kilograms. In 2013 alone, fewer insecticide sprays reduced CO₂ emissions by 28 billion kilograms, equivalent to taking 12.4 million cars off the road for a year.

 

 

Modest annual gains are expected due to high rates of adoption of principal biotech crops. The pipeline is full of new biotech crop products which could be available in the next five years.

Biotech crops can serve as engine of rural economic growth for the alleviation of poverty for the world’s small and resource-poor farmers.