Half of China Crops May Be Biotech By 2014
Date: 09-Dec-04
Country: CHINA
Author: Randy Fabi
China increased its biotech cotton production for the fifth straight year in 2003/04, planting 2.8 million hectares (6.9 million acres) or about 68 percent of its annual cotton crop, said Ford Runge, author of the study and an agricultural economist at the University of Minnesota.
"China's disposition to biotech might be characterized as aggressively engaged," Runge said.
China ranked second in the world in biotech research funding behind the United States, accounting for as much as one-third of global spending on plant biotechnology, the study said.
China is developing and testing a wide variety of gene-altered crops, such as corn, soybeans, rice, potatoes and tomatoes. A pioneer in developing biotech rice, Beijing could release its first variety as early as next year, according to other analysts.
Biotech crops typically have a special gene inserted to help a growing plant fight destructive insects, or to tolerate a herbicide used to kill a broad variety of weeds.
Critics, especially in Europe, say biotech crops pose too many risks to the environment and to human health.
The 121-page global biotech outlook report was funded by the Council for Biotechnology Information, which promotes the use of biotechnology.
Five countries produced 98 percent of the world's biotech crops -- the United States, Argentina, Canada, Brazil and China.
The study said South Africa, Mexico, Australia, India, Romania, Spain, Philippines and Uruguay have begun to plant some biotech crops.
The United States remains by far the largest biotech producer, planting 42.8 million hectares (105.8 million acres) in 2003/04.
