A growing body of research evidence indicates that biotech crops are delivering higher yields and better economic performance for farmers around the world.
In a peer-reviewed article that appears in Nature Biotechnology magazine, Janet E Carpenter writes that the accumulated evidence from farmer surveys helps to explain the widespread and growing popularity of biotech crops.
In her research article, Carpenter, who has worked on issues related to agricultural biotechnology for more than 10 years, provides analysis of 49 peer-reviewed publications reporting on farmer surveys that compare yields and other indicators of economic performance for adopters and non-adopters of currently commercialised biotech crops.
Research analysis presented by Carpenter supports the claim that biotech crops are providing farmers with increased yields. Citing evidence that 74 per cent of yield comparisons of biotech and conventional crops showed positive results for adopters of biotech crops versus non-adopters, she also noted the impact the technology is having on farmers in developing countries.
“The results for yields indicate that farmers in developing countries are achieving greater yield increases than farmers in developed countries. The average increases for developing countries range from 16 per cent for insect-resistant corn to 30 per cent for insect-resistant cotton,” Carpenter concluded.
The article also provides evidence of the overall economic benefit of biotech crops. “Looking across all measures of economic performance, the results are overwhelmingly positive,” writes Carpenter. “Of the 98 results in our survey of the peer-reviewed literature that compare the economic performance of GM crops to their conventional counterparts, 71 indicate a positive economic impact, 11 neutral and 16 negative.”
Many growing biotech crops
According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), global adoption of plant biotechnology increased by seven per cent in 2009. Fourteen million farmers in 25 countries grew biotech crops, over 90 per cent of them small farmers in developing countries.
“The peer-reviewed evidence presented in Nature Biotechnology continues to confirm the yield and economic benefits we have heard from farmers worldwide for more than a decade,” said Denise Dewar, executive director for plant biotechnology at CropLife International. “Farmers around the world are faced with changing climates and pest pressures which make it challenging to achieve food security for a growing population. The continued increase in biotech crop acreage is testament to the simple truth that farmers, when given the option, choose biotech crops because of the benefits they provide.”
