GM Crops: The First Ten Years - International Service for the ...

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GM Crops: The First Ten Years g) Summary of impact Since 1996, the net impact on insecticide use and the associated environmental 'foot print' (relative to what could have been expected if all cotton plantings had been to conventional varieties) in the main GM IR adopting countries has been (Figure 20): • In 2005, a 30% decrease in the total volume of insecticide ai applied (21 million kg) and a 36% reduction in the environmental impact (measured in terms of the field EIQ/ha load); • Since 1996, 19% less insecticide ai has been used (94 million kg) and the environmental impact from insecticides applied to the cotton crop has fallen by 24%. Figure 20. Reduction in insecticide use and the environmental load from using GM IR cotton in adopting countries 1996-2005 0.0% -5.0% -10.0% -15.0% -20.0% -25.0% -30.0% -35.0% -40.0% 4.2 Carbon sequestration 2005 Cumulative Ai EIQ This section assesses the contribution of GM crop adoption to reducing the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The scope for GM crops contributing to lower levels of GHG comes from two principle sources: • Fewer herbicide or insecticide applications (eg, targeted insecticide programmes developed in combination with GM insect resistant (IR) cotton where the number of insecticide treatments has been significantly reduced and hence there are fewer tractor spray passes); 67
GM Crops: The First Ten Years • The use of 'no-till' and 'reduced-till' 81 farming systems. These have increased significantly with the adoption of GM HT crops because the GM HT technology has improved growers ability to control competing weeds, reducing the need to rely on soil cultivation and seedbed preparation as means to getting good levels of weed control. As a result, tractor fuel use for tillage is reduced, soil quality is enhanced and levels of soil erosion cut. In turn, more carbon remains in the soil and this leads to lower GHG emissions 82 . The mitigation of GHG can be measured in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere (due to reduced consumption of tractor fuel and the storing of carbon in the soil) which would otherwise have been released as carbon dioxide. 4.2.1 Tractor fuel use a) Reduced and no tillage The traditional method of soil cultivation is based on the use of the moldbord plough followed by a range of seed bed preparations. This has, however been increasingly replaced in recent years by less intensive methods such as reduced tillage (RT: using reduced chisel or disc ploughing, ridge tilling) or no tillage (NT). These RT/NT systems rely much more on herbicide-based weed control, often comprising a pre-plant burn-down application and secondary applications post-emergent. The amount of tractor fuel used for seed-bed preparation, herbicide spraying (NT only) and planting for in each of these systems is shown in Table 50: Table 50. Tractor fuel consumption by tillage method Traditional cultivation: moldbord plough, disc and seed planting etc Conservation cultivation (RT): chisel plough, disc and seed planting No-till (fertiliser knife, seed planting plus 2 sprays: pre-plant burn down and post-emergent) Source: Adapted from Jasa (2002) and CTIC 2004 litre/ha 46.65 28.83 14.12 81 No-till farming means that the ground is not ploughed at all, while reduced tillage means that the ground is disturbed less than it would be with traditional tillage systems. For example, under a no-till farming system, soybean seeds are planted through the organic material that is left over from a previous crop such as corn, cotton or wheat without any soil disturbance 82 The International Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) has agreed that conservation/no till cultivation leads to higher levels of soil carbon 68
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I S A A A INTERNATIONAL SERVICE FOR
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Published by: Copyright: Citation:
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Contents 3.6.2 China ..............
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List of Tables Table 37. Change in
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS E
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Table 2. GM crop farm income benefi
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Executive Summary and Conclusions
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Executive Summary and Conclusions T
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Table 8. Context of carbon sequestr
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1 INTRODUCTION GM Crops: The First
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GM Crops: The First Ten Years Figur
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Figure 4. Global GM crop plantings
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3 THE FARM LEVEL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF
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• The annual total national farm
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3.1.3 Brazil GM HT soybeans were pr
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Table 14. Farm level income impact
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GM Crops: The First Ten Years Table
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Page 38 and 39: 3.3.2 Other countries GM Crops: The
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Page 54 and 55: 3.7.4 Insect resistant potatoes GM
Page 56 and 57: size. The analysis found that mean
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Page 84 and 85: Table 47. Comparison of insecticide
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Page 100 and 101: 4.2.7 Insect resistant cotton The c
Page 102 and 103: Table 63. Summary of carbon sequest
Page 104 and 105: Appendix Appendix 2: The Environmen
Page 106 and 107: Appendix environmental factor is eq
Page 108 and 109: Appendix 3: Additional information
Page 110 and 111: Typical herbicide regimes for GM HT
Page 112 and 113: Typical insecticide regimes for cot
Page 114 and 115: References Fernandez-Cornejo J & Mc
Page 116: ISBN 1-892456-41-9
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