Transgenic crops catching up, claims pro-GM agency

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: It is 10 years since the world was first introduced to genetically modified (GM) crops. Despite its share of controversies, advocates of the transgenic technology claim that there is growing acceptance to the commercial cultivation of these crops. They claim that the global area under GM crops has increased to 90 million hectares in 2005, fuelled by a double-digit growth rate over the years.

International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), an US-based agency, funded and supported by many including major multinational biotech companies, has stated that the worldwide cumulative area coverage under GM crops was 400 million hectare during the decade (1996-2005). The number of countries too that have approved GM crops shot up from a mere six in 1996 to 21 in 2005.

Yet, all these figures do not necessarily prove the growing popularity of GM crops. New countries may be embracing these crops, but there are others that have rejected them too, sometimes temporarily. For instance, Indonesia and Bulgaria stopped growing GM crops in 2004. France stopped growing Bt maize in 2001, but resumed cultivation in 2005. Portugal too saw a similar pattern: cultivation of Bt maize began here in 1999, was stopped soon after and resumed in 2005 after a five-year hiatus.

Both France and Portugal are members of the EU where there is very stiff public opposition to human consumption of GM crops. The Bt maize grown in France, Portugal, Spain and Czech Republic are largely used as poultry and animal feed and for the export market. Even the EU is yet to ratify GM crops as fit for human consumption. Worldwide, transgenic crops like soya, maize, cotton, canola, squash and papaya. are mainly grown to meet the commercial needs of the industry.

The increase in area under GM crops is primarily due to new countries adopting these crops. Besides, researches on developing GM crops were under way in these countries for a considerable period of time. However, what the ISAAA report fails to record is the number of farmers who have continued with or disbanded GM crop cultivation.

India approved cultivation of Bt cotton since 2002 with three varieties being introduced in the southern states — Mech-12, Mech-162 and Mech-184. After three years of reported failures in Andhra Pradesh, all these three varieties were banned in that state.