Hope Not Hype - Third World Network

Yield
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Chapter Five
Yield
Key messages
1. Yield enhancement has not been the goal of genetic engineering in existing GM
crops.
2. Yield benefits have been observed, but sporadically and in a year-, location- and
crop-dependent manner.
3. Either the technology itself, or the context of its application, has limited genetic
engineering’s ability to deliver yield-enhancing qualities to plants.
THIS chapter is dedicated to text on yield in the Synthesis Report (IAASTD, 2009). The
decision-maker will learn the reasons why the reports were cautious about endorsing “business
as usual” for GM crops.
As this text is written, there is an advertising campaign in New Zealand to warn folks
of the various dangers that come from drinking too much alcohol. The advertisement goes:
“it’s not the drinking; it’s HOW we’re drinking”. The advertisement is not attempting to
say that alcohol is good for people. It is emphasizing that the context of alcohol use is the
immediate problem. The message from the Assessment on modern biotechnology, particularly
transgenics, is similar. The Assessment acknowledged what, and in what places, GM
crops have made positive contributions to some agricultural systems and in which ways
their impacts have been positive. The Assessment also concluded that transgenics might
contribute to the needs of poor and subsistence farmers in the future, but as discussed in
Chapter Two, certainty of contribution is low given that most of this promise has not been
realized over the past 12 years of commercialization and most may never be realized because
of HOW we are using genetic engineering.
GM crops not designed to increase yield
Yield increases are often used as examples of the contribution genetic engineering
makes to alleviating world hunger.