Communication of the international GMO workshop

• Published in: Chinese science bulletin 2015-01, Vol.60 (2), p.283-285
• Main Authors: Brookes, Graham, Chen, Xiao-Ya, Chrispeels, Maarten J., Delmer, Deborah P., Dubock, Adrian, Herrera-Estrella, Luis, Goodman, Richard E., Newell-McGloughlin, Martina, Van Montagu, Marc, Nepomuceno, Alexandre Lima, Obokoh, Nompumelelo H., Raven, Peter H., Wesseler, Justus, Wu, Kongming, Xu, Zhihong, Yang, Xiaoguang, Zehr, Usha Barwale, Zhang, Qifa, Zhang, Ya-Ping, Zhu, Zhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agrarische Economie en Plattelandsbeleid; Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy; Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy Group; Chemistry/Food Science; Earth Sciences; Engineering; Humanities and Social Sciences; Leerstoelgroep Agrarische economie en plattelandsbeleid; Life Sciences; multidisciplinary; News & Views; Physics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); WASS; Zea mays
• ISSN: 2095-9273; 1001-6538; 2095-9281; 1861-9541
• DOI: 10.1007/s11434-014-0713-8

In the years since 1996, when the first field commercial plantings of GM crops were put in place, the underlying science has moved ahead rapidly as have the commercial gains attributable to such crops. In 2013, GM crops were grown on 175 million hectares by 18 million farmers in 27 countries. This area has grown from 1.7 million hectares devoted to the cultivation of such crops in 1996, roughly a 100-fold increase. The direct gain from the adoption of GM crops in 2012 amounted conservatively to US $18.8 billion, with the cumulative gain from 1996 to 2012 amounting to USD $116.6 billion. Over this period, the production of GM soybeans made possible the production of 122 million tons, and that of maize 210 million tons. There was an accompanying reduction in pesticide use of 503 million kg, which amounted to a decrease in the Environmental Impact Quotient of 18.7 %. In 2012, the reduction in the emission of greenhouse gasses related to the cultivation of GM crops amounted to the equival ...