India and China grow more Bt cotton in 2013: ISAAA

06 Mar '14

2 min read

The production of Bt cotton grew both in India and China last year, according to a report on ‘Global status of commercialized biotech/GM crops: 2013’ released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

According to the report, authored by Clive James, Founder and Emeritus Chair of ISAAA, “India cultivated a record 11 million hectares of Bt cotton with an adoption rate of 95 percent, whilst 7.5 million small resource poor farmers in China grew 4.2 million hectares of Bt cotton with an adoption rate of 90 percent, cultivating on average, 0.5 hectare per farm.”

Between 1996 and 2012, biotech cotton in China generated economic benefits valued at over US$ 15 billion, states the report. Additionally, “biotech crops also provided important benefits to farmers and the environment in China, with insecticide use decreasing by 50 percent or more on biotech cotton.”

Africa, too, continued to make progress in adopting and growing Bt cotton, with Burkina Faso and Sudan increasing their Bt cotton hectarage substantially, the report says. Burkina Faso increased its Bt cotton hectares by over 50 percent from 313,781 hectares to 474,229, while Sudan, in its second year of commercialization tripled its Bt cotton from 20,000 hectares in 2012 to 62,000 in 2013.

As per the report, seven African countries—Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda—have conducted field trials on a broad range of biotech crops, including cotton.

As of November 30, 2013, a total of 22 countries have granted regulatory approvals for 49 varieties of biotech cotton. Of these, the variety that has received the most number of approvals is insect resistant cotton MON531, which has received 36 approvals in 17 countries + EU-27, followed by insect resistant cotton MON1445 with 34 approvals in 15 countries + EU-27.

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