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The global area planted with genetically modified crops rose by 12.1% to 114.3 million ha in 2007, estimates the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). The 12.3 million ha expansion was the second-largest increase in the past five years, the ISAAA points out. The cumulative total of GM crops planted over the past 12 years has reached 690.9 million ha.

The number of farmers growing GM crops in developing countries topped 10 million for the first time last year. GM crop farmers in developing countries accounted for over 90% of the 12 million GM crop-growing farmers worldwide, according to the ISAAA. Some 7.1 million farmers grew insect-resistant Bt cotton in China, with a further 3.8 million in India. Developing countries accounted for 43% of the global GM crop area in 2007, compared with 40% in the previous year. There was a 21% expansion of the GM crop area in developing countries and a 6% rise in developed nations. The number of developing countries growing GM crops (12) surpassed the number of industrialised nations (11) for the first time.

The two countries growing GM crops for the first time last year were Chile and Poland. Chile produced over 25,000 ha of commercial GM maize, soybean and canola seed crops for export, while Poland cultivated its first Bt maize crop. Poland became the eighth EU country to plant GM maize. The overall EU GM maize area exceeded 100,000 ha for the first time, with an annual expansion of 77%. Farmers in Spain planted over 70,000 ha, representing an adoption rate of 21%. GM maize plantings in the other seven countries rose more than four-fold to 35,700 ha.

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The US remained by far the largest adopter of GM crops, with an area of 57.7 million ha representing 50% of the global total in 2007. Increased demand for bioethanol boosted the GM maize area by 40%. Notably, some 63% of GM maize, 78% of GM cotton and 37% of all GM crops in the US were stacked products with two or three traits, the ISAAA points out. Stacked products were grown in a further nine countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and South Africa), with more countries expected to adopt stacked traits in the future.

Argentina retained its position as the second-largest producer of GM crops, with its 19.1 million ha crop representing nearly 20% of the global area. GM soybeans were planted on some 16 million ha, with the GM maize area amounting to 2.8 million ha and GM cotton about 400,000 ha. The 3.5 million ha increase in the GM crop area in Brazil to 15 million ha was the largest area increase last year. GM soybeans were planted on some 14.5 million ha, with Bt cotton accounting for the remainder.

India recorded the largest proportional increase in GM crop plantings for the third consecutive year, recording a 63% rise to 6.2 million ha of Bt cotton. Some 3.8 million farmers grew Bt cotton last year, compared with the 54,000 farmers who planted 50,000 ha in 2002. The "spectacular" growth is attributed to "unprecedented" benefits to farmers and the country, with yields up by 50% and insecticide applications cut by 50%, the ISAAA says. The 3.8 million ha of Bt cotton planted in China last year accounted for 69% of the country's cotton area. The smaller size of holdings in China than India meant that more than twice as many farmers (7.1 million) in China grew GM crops than in India.

Soybeans remained the predominant GM crop last year, representing 57% of the global GM crop area. The 58.6 million ha of GM soybeans accounted for 64% of global soybean plantings. The 35.2 million ha GM maize crop accounted for 25% of the GM crop area and 24% of worldwide maize plantings. GM cotton (15 million ha) accounted for 43% of global cotton plantings, while GM canola (5.5 million ha) represented 20% of that crop.

Herbicide-tolerant crops (72.2 million ha) accounted for 63% of the world's GM crop area. Stacked-trait herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant crops (21.8 million ha) represented a larger area than insect-resistant lines (20.3 million ha) for the first time in 2007. Plantings of stacked-trait products recorded the greatest growth (66%), followed by insect-resistant (7%) and herbicide-tolerant (3%) crops.

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The global value of GM crops in 2007 was estimated at $6,900 million by UK consultancy Cropnosis, the ISAAA reports. This figure represented 16% of the $42,200 million crop protection market and 20% of the $34,000 million seed market. The value of GM maize amounted to $3,200 million, representing 47% of the total, compared with 39% in 2006. Soybeans accounted for 37% of the total (44% in 2006). Cotton made up 13% of the value of the GM crop market, with canola accounting for most of the remainder.

The ISAAA forecasts further growth for GM crops in the coming years. "I predict the number of biotech countries, crops, traits and farmers will grow substantially in the second year of adoption," says ISAAA chairman Clive James. Burkina Faso, Egypt and possibly Vietnam are seen as potential candidates for adopting GM crops in the next year or two. The number of farmers planting GM crops could increase by more than ten-fold to 100 million by 2015, Mr James forecasts. The second decade of commercialisation is expected to feature significantly more growth in Asia than during the first ten years, which was "the decade of the Americas", the ISAAA notes. However, there will be continued expansion in stacked traits in North America and "strong growth" in Brazil.

It is a "fortunate coincidence" that the last year of the second decade of GM crop commercialisation, 2015, is also the year of the Millennium Development Goals, the ISAAA points out. This is seen as an opportunity for the public and private sectors to define the contributions that GM crops can make to the goal of reducing poverty and hunger by 50% by 2015.

* Further details of the ISAAA's analysis of global GM crop plantings are available on the organisation's website at: http://www.isaaa.org

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