The most compelling and credible testimony to biotech crops is that during the 16 year period 1996 to 2011, millions of farmers in 29 countries worldwide, elected to make more than 100 million independent decisions to plant and replant an accumulated hectarage of more than billion hectares – an area 25% larger than the total land mass of the US or China – there is one principal and overwhelming reason that underpins the trust and confidence of risk-averse farmers in biotechnology – biotech crops deliver substantial, and sustainable, socio-economic and environmental benefits. The 2011 study conducted in Europe confirmed. | I S A A A International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BRIEF 42 Global Status of Commercialized Biotech GM Crops 2010 by Clive James Founder and Chair ISAAA Board of Directors Dedicated by the Author to the Twentieth Anniversary of ISAAA 1991 to 2010 GLOBAL AREA OF BIOTECH CROPS Million Hectares 1996-2010 160 - 140 - 120 - 100 - 80 - 60 - 40 - 20 - 0 0 Total Hectares Industrial -A- Developing 29 Biotech Crop Countries 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 A record million farmers in 29 countries planted 148 million hectares 365 million acres in 2010 a sustained increase of 10 or 14 million hectares 35 million acres over 2009. Source Clive James 2010. No. 42 - 2010 AUTHOR S NOTE Global totals of millions of hectares planted with biotech crops have been rounded off to the nearest million and similarly subtotals to the nearest 100 000 hectares using both and characters hence in some cases this leads to insignificant approximations and there may be minor variances in some figures totals and percentage estimates that do not always add up exactly to 100 because of rounding off. It is also important to note that countries in the Southern Hemisphere plant their crops in the last quarter of the calendar year. The biotech crop areas reported in this publication are planted not necessarily harvested hectarage in the year stated. Thus for example the 2010 information for Argentina Brazil Australia South Africa and Uruguay is hectares usually planted in the last quarter of 2010 and harvested in the first quarter of 2011 with some countries like the Philippines having more than one season per year. Thus for countries of the Southern hemisphere such as Brazil Argentina and South Africa the estimates are projections and thus are always subject to change due to weather which may increase or decrease actual planted hectares before the end of the planting season when this Brief has to go to press. .
