根据国际农业生物技术应用收购服务组织 (ISAAA) 的最新年度报告，自近 20 年前转基因种子问世以来，发展中国家种植转基因作物的土地首次超过工业化国家。
Developing nations planted 52% of the global biotech crops in 2012, up from 50% a year earlier. Industrialized countries accounted for 48% of GM crop growth, according to ISAAA. Last year also marked an unprecedented 100-fold increase in biotech crop hectarage to 170 million hectares from 1.7 million in 1996, when biotech crops were first commercialized.
“This growth is contrary to the prediction of critics, who prior to the commercialization of the technology in 1996 prematurely declared that biotech crops were only for industrial countries, and would never be accepted and adopted by developing countries,” said Clive James, veteran author of the report and chair and founder of ISAAA.
Globally, farmers grew a record 170.3 million hectares of biotech crops in 2012, up 6%, or 10.3 million hectares more than in 2011, boosting farmers’ income worldwide due to enhanced
ISAAA’s report also showed that the rate and scale of biotech crop adoption in developing countries dwarfs that of industrialized nations. The growth rate for biotech crops was at least three times as fast, and five times as large, in developing countries, at 11% or 8.7 million hectares, versus 3% or 1.6 million hectares in industrial countries.
苏丹、古巴首次种植转基因作物
苏丹和古巴去年首次种植转基因作物。苏丹开始种植转基因棉花，成为第四个将转基因作物商业化的非洲国家。其他国家包括南非、布基纳法索和埃及。
詹姆斯说，古巴农民种植了 3,000 公顷杂交生物技术玉米，作为加强生态可持续性和保持无农药计划的一部分。
Of the 28 countries that planted biotech crops, 20 were developing and eight were industrial countries, compared to 19 developing and 10 industrial countries in 2011. Approximately 60 percent of the world’s population, or about 4 billion people, live in the 28 countries planting biotech crops.
巴西转基因作物激增；美国 90% 采用率
China, India, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa – which account for 40% of the global population – grew 78.2 million hectares or 46% of global biotech crops in 2012.
For the fourth consecutive year, Brazil outpaced all other countries’ growth at 21%, and it now ranks second only to the U.S. in worldwide biotech crop hectarage.
“A fast-track science-based approval system allows Brazil to adopt new biotech crops in a timely manner. For instance, the South American country was the first to approve the stacked soybean with insect resistance and herbicide tolerance for commercialization in 2013,” James said.
美国继续以 6950 万公顷的生物技术作物土地领先世界，所有作物平均采用 90%。
“Biotech crops are important but are not a panacea,” James added. “Adherence to good farming practices, such as rotations and resistance management, are a must for biotech crops as they are for conventional crops.”