Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology - Asian Productivity ...

Business Potential for Agricultural Biotechnology Products
of the demand for food, jobs, and income; they are also a labor and management resource to be
employed in a vast range of activities, from the production of inputs into farming to post-harvest
processing and marketing.
Four sets of technologies have affected and will continue to have a significant impact on
farming practices in the new millennium: biotechnology (BT), information technology (IT),
physical technology (PT), and knowledge technology (KT). One or more of these will develop
new approaches for farming, such as precision farming, which utilizes IT and PT to develop
miniaturized systems for location-specific application of inputs and for land preparation and
water management (Teng, 1999). Biotechnology offers the best opportunity to meet the challenge
of improving on the potential in seeds and also of providing the enabling knowledge to express
that potential. High-quality seed of crop cultivars with the desirable genetic background
still form the foundation for farming. Increasing crop production under developing world conditions
is strongly dependent on farmers having access to seeds with high potential yields and
the inputs (fertilizer, water) necessary for this potential to be expressed. High-yielding crop
cultivars are of limited benefit unless their potential high yields can be captured by farmers. In
practice, both biotic and abiotic constraints operate to prevent many farmers from achieving the
yield potential inherent in their seeds (Savary et al., 1997). This is tantamount to a “hidden loss.”
At the same time, the potential will need to be protected during the crop’s growing period from
infestations and infections which cause actual loss. Biotech crops have the capability, through
new traits, to both raise yields and reduce losses.
CURRENT STATUS OF COMMERCIALIZED CROP BIOTECHNOLOGY
Nature and Value of Crop Biotech Products
A detailed review of the global status of commercialized biotech crops is presented in the
accompanying paper, prepared by this author for this Mission Study (Teng, 2005), and only
some points relevant to commercialization are presented here. Commercial crop biotech products
consist of different crop varieties possessing specific traits. 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 (Table 1).
Table 1. Biotech Crop Area as % of Global Area
of Principal Crops, 2004 (million ha)
Crop
Global
area
Biotech
crop area
Biotech area
as % of
global area
Soybean 86 48.4 56%
Cotton 32 9.0 28%
Canola 23 4.3 19%
Maize 143 19.3 14%
Total 284 81.0 29%
Source: Clive James, 2004
During the nine-year period 1996 to 2004, herbicide tolerance has consistently been the
dominant trait, with insect resistance second (James, 2004). In 2004, herbicide tolerance, deployed
in soybean, maize, canola, and cotton, occupied 72% of the 81.0 million ha. There were
15.6 million ha planted to Bt crops, equivalent to 19%, with stacked genes for herbicide
tolerance and insect resistance deployed in both cotton and maize occupying 9% of the global
biotech area in 2004. It is noteworthy that whereas the area of herbicide-tolerant crops increased
by a significant 18% (8.9 million ha) between 2003 and 2004, Bt crops increased at a higher
level of 28% (3.4 million ha). This increase in Bt crops reflects the significant increase in Bt
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