In 2017, farmers around the world planted 189.8 million hectares (about 469 million acres) of biotech crops, a new record as reported by Paul Teng, board chair of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, at a meeting in July.
This number comes from the organization’s latest annual report, “The Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2017.” Just as the number of acres have increased, so has farm income. In the past 21 years (1996-2016), global farm income gains contributed by biotech crops mounted to $186.1 billion, benefitting more than 17 million farmers, of which 95 percent are from developing countries. Teng expects that trend to continue, noting the importance of regulations.
“Science-based regulations are very important. If we cannot use science, we have no ground to stand on,” he says. “It cannot be based on perceptions alone as they are often proven wrong. Science is what we have in the moment as a tool to show that something is credible.”
