James said there is considerable potential for increasing the biotech adoption of the four current large hectarage biotech crops – maize, soybean, cotton and canola – which represented almost 150 million hectares in 2010 from a global potential of double that hectarage at over 300 million hectares. In the next five years, the timing of commercialized biotech rice, and drought tolerance as a trait in maize and several other crops are seminal catalysts for the future adoption of biotech crops globally. Drought tolerant maize is expected in the U.S. as early as 2012, and importantly, in Africa by 2017.
The decision, four years ago, to delay biotech herbicide tolerant wheat is also being revisited and many countries are fast-tracking the development of biotech wheat with a range of traits including drought tolerance, disease resistance and grain quality – the first of which are expected to be ready for commercialization as early as 2017. James expects several medium hectarage crops to be approved for commercialization by 2015, including: biotech potatoes resistant to the most important disease of potatoes in the world, “late blight”, the cause of the Irish famine in 1845, sugarcane with improved agronomic and quality traits, disease-resistant bananas, Bt eggplant, tomato, broccoli, and cabbage, as well as some pro-poor crops, such as biotech cassava, sweet potato, pulses and groundnut. The 29 countries which planted biotech crops in 2010 already represent 59 percent of the world population, and James is cautiously optimistic about the contribution that biotech can make to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals of food security and poverty alleviation.
“Biotech crops have played a perhaps underappreciated role in progress toward attainment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals,” said James. “Their impact by 2015 will be more universally recognized.”
Furthermore, biotech crops have contributed to sustainability and are helping mitigate climate change, said James: “Biotech crops have helped reduce carbon emissions and save land, while helping alleviate poverty for some of the poorest people in the world.”
To provide more of the world’s small and resource-poor farmers access to biotech crops, James says there is an urgent need for appropriate regulatory systems that are responsible and rigorous – but not onerous – for small and poor developing countries.
The report is entirely funded by two European philanthropic organizations: the Bussolera-Branca Foundation from Italy, which supports the open-sharing of knowledge on biotech crops to aid decision-making by global society; and a philanthropic unit within Ibercaja, one of the largest Spanish banks headquartered in the maize growing region of Spain.
For more information and details on ‘ISAAA Brief 42: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2010’, log on to www.isaaa.org.
About ISAAA
The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) is a not-for-profit organization with an international network of centers designed to contribute to the alleviation of hunger and poverty by sharing knowledge and crop biotechnology applications. Clive James, Chairman and Founder of ISAAA, has lived and/or worked for the past 30 years in the developing countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa, devoting his efforts to agricultural research and development issues with a focus on crop biotechnology and global food security.
Source: ISAAA Press Release dated February 22, 2011.
