Agência Brasil
Brasília – Brazil is already the fourth world producer of genetically modified (GM) crops, with around 3 million hectares, of transgenic soy. The United States continue leading the rank, with 42.8 million hectares, followed by Argentina (13.9 million hectares), Canada (4.4 million hectares), Brazil, and China (2.8 million hectares).
According to the "Global Status of Commercialized Transgenic Crops: 2003", annual report prepared by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) which brings together the most recent information about genetically modified (GM) crops all around the world, in 2003 the global area on which GM crops are being cultivated has risen 15%, going from 58.7 million hectares in to 67.7 million hectares.
For the first time, Brazil and the Philippines have been included in the ISAAA official report, elevating the number of countries that cultivate the main transgenic products (soy, corn, canola and cotton) to 18 last year: the United States, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, China, South Africa, Philippines, India, Australia, Uruguay, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Honduras, and Colombia.
Soy was the main GM product cultivated in 2003, on 41.4 million hectares, followed by corn (15.5 million), cotton (7.2 million) and canola (3.6 million hectares).
Herbicide resistant crops covered 73% of the global area (49.7 million hectares); those resistant to insects covered 18% of the global area (12.2 million hectares); and those joining both functions occupied 8%, on 5.8 million hectares.
According to the report, over the next five years, the global area covered in GM crops should rise to 100 million hectares, covering 25 countries. The entire report is available at site www.isaaa.org.
