Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

2. GLOBAL STATUS AND TRENDS OF
COMMERCIALIZED BIOTECHNOLOGY IN CROPS
INTRODUCTION
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Dr. Paul S. Teng
Natural Science & Science Education AG
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
W. Clive James
International Service for the Acquisition of
Agri-biotech Applications
Cornell University
New York, U.S.
Commercial crop biotechnology products consist of different crop varieties possessing
specific traits in any of four food, feed, and fiber crops, namely, soybean, maize (corn), canola,
and cotton. Admittedly, there are many other plant species which have been genetically modified
for various traits, but these are all still in the research and development phase or are undergoing
government regulatory approval prior to commercialization. In 2004, the global area grown with
biotech crops was estimated at 81 million ha, made up primarily of four crops: soybean, maize,
cotton, and canola (James, 2004). These four crops have increased markedly in area since their
introduction (Figure 1), and the data clearly show the continuing dominance of biotech soybean,
which occupied 60% of the global area of biotech crops in 2004 (Table 1). Biotech soybean
retained its position in 2004 as the biotech crop occupying the largest area. Globally, biotech
soybean occupied 48.4 million ha in 2004, with biotech maize in second place at 19.3 million ha,
biotech cotton in third place at 9.0 million ha, and finally canola at 4.3 million ha (Table 2). This
paper will discuss only biotech crops and not other crop biotech products such as pathogen
diagnostic kits or molecular marker selected varieties (Teng, 1999).
Source: Clive James, 2004
Figure 1. Global Area of Biotech Crops, 1996–2004
by Crop (million ha)