www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

South African farmers, commercial and emergent, are growing more genetically
modified (GM) crops, February 2007 by Kim Helfrich.

?The production of GM crops ? maize, soya and cotton ? last year totalled
1,4 million hectares. This is a 180% increase over the previous year,? said
AgriSA president Lourie Bosman.

This was the second highest percentage growth in any country in the world,
surpassed only by India at 192%, he said.

White and yellow GM maize topped the list with more than a million hectares
in cultivation.

In addition to planting more GM crops, SA is a major producer of GM maize
seed with about 1 200 tons worth R37 million exported last year.

?These achievements reflect both the confidence and trust of thousands of
commercial and emergent farmers and consumers in crop biotechnology,? he
said.

Internationally the trend is the same ? 2006 was the 10th consecutive year
that biotech crops continued to grow at double-digit rate.

Last year the 100 million hectare mark was passed internationally with more
than 10 million farmers in 22 countries planting 102 million hectares.

?Just over nine million of these are small, resource-poor farmers in
developing countries where increased income from biotech crops contributed
significantly to poverty alleviation.?

Several new GM crops are in the pipeline. These include maize cultivars
resistant to stalk borer and also herbicide tolerant. Locally-developed
drought tolerant maize, groundnuts and soya are being field tested as are
potatoes resistant to viruses and the potato tuber moth.

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