GENETICALLY Modified (GM) crops have generated significant environmental improvements over the past 20 years in Australia and 25 other countries while stimulating strong economic growth, a new report has revealed.
The UK based PG Economics report “GM crops: global socio-economic and environmental impacts 1996-2015”, has prompted CropLife Australia CEO Matthew Cossey to use its findings to demand the removal of state based moratoria on crop biotechnology that “don’t make sense”.
The new report released today said GM technology has had a significant positive impact on farm income derived from a combination of enhanced productivity and efficiency gains.
“In 2015, the direct global farm income benefit from GM crops was US$15.4 billion,” it said.
“This is equivalent to having added 5.2 per cent to the value of global production of the four main crops of soybeans, maize, canola and cotton.
“Since 1996, farm incomes have increased by US$167.8b.”
Mr Cossey said Australian farmers had also embraced crop biotechnology, growing both GM canola and GM cotton, reaping more than US$1b in farm income benefits over the past 20 years.
“With GM cotton accounting for almost all cotton production in Australia, cotton farmers had a net farm income gain of more than US$55.8 million in 2015, and cumulatively since 1996 the gains have been US$949m,” he said.
“The average Australian farmer growing GM canola in 2015 had an average net increase in gross margins of US$38 per hectare, which is a national gain of nearly US$17m in farm income.”
Australia has grown GM cotton since 1996 and GM canola since 2008 in NSW and Vitoria and WA since 2010.
Mr Cossey said the contribution of GM crops to the global food supply was impressive, delivering an additional 357.7m/t of corn, 180.3m/t of soybeans, 25.2m/t of cotton and 10.6m/t of canola have been produced between 1996 and 2015, which would not have been achieved if conventional technology had been used.
He said the crop biotechnology innovations had also allowed a reduction of the equivalent of 26.7 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide in emissions from agriculture practices because of innovations allowing reduced fuel usage and additional soil carbon storage from reduced tillage with GM crops.
“Australian farmers have always embraced innovation in agriculture and the rapid adoption of GM crops is evidence of farmers seeing the clear financial, agronomic and environmental benefits of modern crop breeding innovation,” he said.
“The 20 years of successful GM cultivation in Australia, and the ongoing evidence of environmental and economic benefits of biotechnology support the Productivity Commission’s recommendations in the final Regulation of Australian Agriculture report, which highlights the importance of improving regulatory efficiency and removing unnecessary and duplicative regulations on GM crop innovation.”
Mr Cossey said Australia’s unnecessary state-based moratoria served “no purpose” other than to stifle innovation.
He said in some cases they also acted as a “political football for people who blatantly refuse to acknowledge the real-world benefits GM crops provide to farmers and the nation”.
“It is time for the remaining states with GM crop cultivation moratoria to have them repealed and unshackle agricultural innovation for the benefit of their farming sectors,” he said.
“When farmers are given access and the opportunity of growing GM crops, they can grow more on less land, increase crop yields, contribute to international competitiveness, and reduce agriculture’s environmental impact.
“Evidence has shown that given the choice, farmers increasingly choose to grow GM crops despite the remnants of extreme and vocal anti-science activist campaigns.
“In the face of these numerous benefits of GM crops and the real-world experience of 20 years of GM crop cultivation in Australia, state-based moratoria just don’t make sense.
“Several independent and government commissioned reports show that Tasmania and South Australia have not gained a marketing advantage from a GM-free status, while their farmers have missed out on their share of the US$1b income benefits gained by Australian farmers with access to crop biotechnology over the last 20 years.”
The report said the largest gains in farm income in 2015 had arisen in the GM maize sector, largely from yield gains, while insect resistant crops had added US$46b to the income of global maize farmers, since 1996.
In 2015, cotton farm income levels in GM adopting countries increased by US$3.38b and since 1996 the sector has benefited from an additional US$52b, the report said.
For GM soybean and canola farmers, GMs have delivered US$50b of extra farm income.
The report said Australia planted 94pc of its 2015 cotton crop (270,110 hectares) to GM varieties and unlike the other main countries, Australian growers had “rarely” derived yield gains from using the technology, with the primary farm income benefit being derived from lower costs of production.
Another report by the same group released in June last year showed GM crops had increased farm incomes by $1.37 billion in Australia since 1996 while producing an additional 226,000 tonnes of canola and reducing insecticide and herbicide use by 22 million kilograms of active ingredient, in the same period.