Environment Forum

Global plantings of biotech crops

(Reuters) – Led by U.S. producers, 14 million farmers in 25 countries planted genetically modified crops in 2009, increasing planted biotech cropland by 7 percent, even as biotech crop use declined in Europe, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a pro-biotech crop group.

Biotech soybeans made up more than three-quarters of global soybean plantings; biotech cotton was nearly half of global cotton, and biotech maize accounted for more than one-quarter of global maize land.

The following is a list of 15 countries that planted at least 100,000 hectares in 2009 to genetically modified corn, soybeans, cotton and other crops, according to ISAAA. Ten countries planted less than 100,000 hectares.

(acres is hectares x 2.47) table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104F8C; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;} Country 2009 2008 United States 64 62.5 Brazil 21.4 15.8 Argentina 21.3 21 India 8.4 7.6 Canada 8.2 7.6 China 3.7 3.8 Paraguay 2.2 2.7 South Africa 2.1 1.8 Uruguay 0.8 0.7 Bolivia 0.8 0.6 Philippines 0.5 0.4 Australia 0.2 0.2 Burkina Faso 0.1 0.1 Spain 0.1 0.1 Mexico 0.1 0.1

(million hectares)