Biotech crops experience second-highest hectarage growth on record
A report published by the ISAAA shows that last year (2004), biotechnology derived crops experienced the second highest hectarage growth since they were first offered to farmers ten years ago. The 2004 global area for biotech crops grew 20% and about 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries planted them. Most of these (90%) are small scale farmers in lesser developed countries.
For the first time the absolute growth in biotech crop area was higher in the lesser developed countries (and increase in 7.2 million hectares over 2003) than in the industrialized countries (6.1 million hectares increase in 2004).
By the end of this decade, the ISAAA predicts that up to 15 million farmers in up to 30 countries will be growing biotechnology derived crops on 150 million hectares.
"This substantial increase clearly shows that both small scale and large scale farmers in the developed and developing world choose to grow biotechnology derived crop varieties because of the real socio-economic and environmental benefits that they and their farming communities experience," says Simon Barber, Director of the Plant Biotechnology Unit at EuropaBio, the EU association for bioindustries.
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