data page Brazil, Canada and South Africa bullish on agbiotech

Andrew Marshall

Transgenic crop plantings in developing countries surpassed those double-digit growth. Elsewhere, Sudan and Cuba planted their first in industrial nations, with the former growing 52% of the world’s transgenic crops (Bt and Bt maize, respectively). Europe con- transgenic varieties. Although the United States dominates overall, tinues to wind down its field trials; and withdrew transgenic acreage in Brazil, Canada and South Africa continued the low- Amflora transgenic from the market. Global area by transgenic trait Historical global area and value of transgenic Growth of herbicide-tolerant crops surpassed that of those with herbicide/ crops insect-resistant stacked traits. Since 1996, there has been a 100-fold increase in global hectarage to 120 100.5 170.3 million hectares. Herbicide tolerant 100 93.9 180 16,000 89.3 170 Insect resistant ■ Value ($ millions) 90 83.6 160 Global transgenic crops market value Both traits stacked 79.0 160 ■ Area (million hectares) 148 14,000 80 69.9 72.2 134 70 63.7 140 12,000 58.6 125 60 43.7 49.7 120 114 42.2 10,000 ($ millions) 50 102 100 32.3 90 40 26.9 28.7 26.3 8,000 21.7 26.1 81 30 20.3 19.1 23.9 80 19.0 21.8 68 15.6 16.2 13.1 6,000 20 12.2 6.8 10.1 59 5.8 (million hectares) 60 53 44 10 40 4,000 40 0 area Global transgenic crops 28 Biotech crops area (million hectares) area Biotech crops 2,000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20 11 2 11,219 13,200 14,840 2,429 2,928 3,470 4,046 5,090 5,714 6,670 7,773 9,045 10,607 Year 2,35 4 0 0

Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Year Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. Value data Global area of transgenic crops by country are explicitly from seeds and licensing revenue rather than from ‘crops’ themselves. Transgenic acreage in South Africa took off last year; plantings continued double-digit growth in Brazil and Canada. Transgenic crop adoption rate in the US

2010 Transgenic crop area (million hectares) Canola adoption grew most to 93%; transgenic maize, soybean, cotton and Change sugar beet each represent >90% of total crop. from 2011 Country 01020304050607080 97 6% USA 69.5 95 22% Brazil 36.6 94 95 95 94 6% Argentina 23.9 120 92 93 11% India 91 93 90 93 11.6 89 91 87 52% Canada 10.8 85 87 86 88 86 88 100 81 79 83 75 3% China 75 76 Sugar beet 4 75 73 9% Paraguay 3.4 68 © 2013 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. America, Inc. © 2013 Nature 71 Canola 0% Pakistan 2.9 80 61 69 85 86 80 39% South Africa 2.8 54 61 73 59 Cotton 27% Uruguay 1.4 60 52 64 0% Bolivia 45 1 40 Soybean 44% Australia 0.8 40 34 46 49 npg 15% Philippines 43 Maize 0.7 25 26 38 0% Myanmar 0.3 0% Burkina Faso 0.3 20 28 28 20 20 21 0% Mexico 0.2 16 ansgenic crop adoption rate (%) ansgenic crop 0 Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. Tr 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Year EU transgenic crop field trials Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications; National EU field trials are becoming an endangered species, down to 51. Agricultural Statistics Service.

300 ■ United Kingdom ■ The Netherlands ■ Selected novel transgenic crop/traits under USDA assessment ■ Sweden ■ Lithuania ■ Finland Crop Company Event/trait Stage ■ Spain ■ ■ Denmark 250 ■ Slovakia ■ ■ Maize Dow DAS-40278-9 Zea mays encodes an aryloxyal- Preliminary ■ Romania ■ Iceland ■ kanoate dioxygenase 1 enzyme that inactivates assessment ■ Portugal ■ Hungary ■ Germany herbicides of the aryloxyalkanoate family. 200 ■ Poland ■ ■ Norway Apple Okanagan Artic/GD743 and GS784 Malus x domestica Pending events produced by tumefaciens petition 150 transformation of a polyphenol oxidase suppression sequence derived from apple that 100 prevents browning on exposure of fruit to air. Eucalyptus Arborgen 427/435 Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus Petition urophylla hybrid expressing the C-repeat binding 50 factor 2 gene from Arabidopsis to confer freeze tolerance. 0 Source: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/biotechnology/petitions_table_pending.shtml.

1991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012 Source: Joint Research Centre; http://gmoinfo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/. Andrew Marshall is Chief Editor, Nature

264 volume 31 number 4 APRIL 2013 nature biotechnology