En 2015, pour la première fois depuis leur commercialisation qui date de 1996, la superficie des cultures d’OGM a diminué. Selon le Service international pour l’acquisition des applications d’agrobiotechnologie(ISAAA), la principale raison de ce recul, d’environ 1% par rapport à 2014, c’est le bas niveau du prix des matières premières qui est à l’origine de la diminution des cultures de maïs, soja et canola. Les Semences GM sont actuellement cultivées dans 28 pays par quelque 18 millions d’agricultrices et d’agriculteurs. En dépit de la propagation croissante au cours des deux dernières décennies, seule une petite partie de la superficie mondiale est plantée en semences GM. (NYT, 13.4.16)

 


Quelle: New York Times 13. April 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/business/acreage-for-genetically-modified-crops-declined-in-2015.html?_r=1

Acreage for Genetically Modified Crops Declined in 2015

The world’s farmers have increased their use of genetically modified crops steadily and sharply since the technology became broadly commercialized in 1996. Not anymore.

In 2015, for the first time, the acreage used for the crops declined, according to a nonprofit that tracks the plantings of biotech seeds.

The organization said the main cause for the decline, which measured 1 percent from 2014 levels, was low commodity prices, which led farmers to plant less corn, soybeans and canola of all types, both genetically engineered and nonengineered.

But the figures for the last few years show that the existing market for the crops has nearly been saturated.

Only three countries — the United States, Brazil and Argentina — account for more than three-quarters of the total global acreage. And only four crops — corn, soybeans, cotton and canola — account for the majority of biotechnology use in agriculture. In many cases, more than 90 percent of those four crops grown in those three countries, and in other large growers like Canada, India and China, is already genetically modified, leaving little room for expansion.

Efforts to expand use of biotechnology to other crops and to other countries have been hindered by opposition from consumer and environmental groups, regulatory hurdles and in some cases scientific obstacles.

“Onerous regulation for transgenic biotech crops remains the principal constraint to adoption,” said the executive summary of the report by the nonprofit, known as the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.

The organization states its mission as helping small farmers in developing countries take advantage of biotechnology, which it maintains can increase farmer income and reduce use of chemical pesticides. It receives financial support from various foundations, companies, trade groups and governments, including Monsanto and the United States government.

Still, the group’s yearly acreage tallies are widely cited, even sometimes by critics of biotechnology.

The policy conclusions reached by the group are another matter. Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, which generally opposes genetically modified crops, said that the organization’s reports were “just total boosterism.”

The slowing of growth in agricultural biotechnology has contributed to consolidation within the industry, with DuPont and Dow merging and Syngenta being acquired by the China National Chemical Corporation. It is also a factor behind Monsanto’s efforts to diversify, including through an unsuccessful bid to buy Syngenta last year.

Over all, the acreage planted with biotech seeds in 2015 fell 1 percent globally to 444.0 million acres, from 448.5 million acres in 2014. The crops were grown in 28 countries and used by up to 18 million farmers, most of them small ones in developing countries, the report said. Critics say that despite the expansion over the last two decades, biotech crops still account for a small fraction of global farmland and are grown by a small percentage of the world’s farmers.