In January 2002 the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), an international research association, issued its annual report,
Global Review of Commercialized Transgenic Crops: 2001. The report projects the total acreage of crops grown with the help of biotechnology (biotech crops) throughout the world in 2001.
ISAAA projects that 5.5 million farmers (more than 75 percent of them resource poor) in 13 countries grew more than 130 million acres of biotech crops in 2001, accounting for a nearly 20 percent increase from the 2000 acreage.
Biotech soybeans were the principal biotech crop in 2001, occupying 63 percent of total acreage, followed by biotech corn (19 percent), biotech cotton (13 percent) and biotech canola (5 percent).
Farmers in developing countries such as South Africa and China benefit from biotech crops—mainly biotech cotton—because these crops generally require fewer pesticide applications. As a result the farmer spends less money on pesticides and less time growing the crop.
ISAAA is optimistic that the total number of farmers benefiting from this technology will continue to grow in 2002, as will the total acreage of biotech crops grown around the world.
