Worldwide biotech crops experience near record growth
MANILA, Philippines,
January 12, 2005, ISAAA Media Release - www.isaaa.org:
Biotech crops experienced the second highest hectarage
growth on record in 2004 to reach 81million hectares
(200 million acres). According to a report released today,
authored by Clive James chairman and founder of the International
Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications
(ISAAA), global area for biotech crops grew 20 percent
in 2004 — an increase of 13.3 million hectares (32.9
million acres).
The study reported that approximately 8.25 million farmers
in 17 countries planted biotech crops in 2004 —
1.25 million more farmers than planted biotech crops in
18 countries in 2003. Notably, 90 percent of these farmers
were in developing countries. In fact, for the first time,
the absolute growth in biotech crop area was higher in
developing countries (7.2 million hectares) than in industrial
countries (6.1 million hectares).
The number of “biotech mega-countries” (countries
growing 50,000 hectares
or more biotech crops) increased from 10 to 14 in 2004
with the addition of Paraguay, Mexico, Spain and the Philippines
reflecting the participation of a broader group of countries
adopting biotech crops. The number of countries accounting
for the majority of the global total of biotech crop area
grew from five to eight and included the United States
(59 percent of the global total), Argentina (20 percent),
Canada (6 percent), Brazil (6 percent), China (5 percent),
Paraguay (2 percent), India (1 percent) and South Africa
(1 percent). In addition to Mexico, Spain and the Philippines,
Uruguay, Australia and Romania complete the mega-country
list.
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