Presentation by Mr Lourie Bosman, President of Agri SA., Tuesday, 23 January 2007 in Pretoria, South Africa

The production of GM crops in South Africa – maize, soya and cotton – in 2006 totalled an impressive 1.4 million ha. This is a significant increase of 180% over the previous year’s 500 000 ha. White and yellow maize topped the list with more than one million hectares followed by soya and cotton.

This is the second highest percentage increase of any country in the world surpassed only by India with 192% increase.

South Africa is also a major producer of GM maize seed produced by numerous commercial and emergent farmers. In 2006 some 1232 metric tons worth R37 million were exported earning South Africa valuable foreign exchange.

South Africa is also a regular exporter of GM and non-GM cotton seed.

These achievements, in no uncertain terms, reflect the trust and confidence of thousands of South African commercial and emergent farmers and consumers in crop biotechnology as the leaders in Africa of this unique agricultural technology, says Mr Lourie Bosman, president Agri SA.

Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria, he said according to the latest figures released by Clive James, chairman of ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications), the global adoption of biotech crops in 2006 was the fastest crop technology advance in recent history.

In 2006 10.3 million farmers (8.5 m 2005) in 22 countries (21) planted 102 million hectares  (90 m) of GM crops. This is an increase of 12 million ha or 13% over the previous year. This is the tenth consecutive year that biotech crops continued to climb at a sustained double-digit growth rate.

“This is an historical landmark in that it is the first time that more than 100 million hectares of biotech crops were grown in any one year,” said Bosman.

Of the 10.3 million farmers 9.3 million (7.7 m) were small, resource poor farmers from developing countries whose increased income from biotech crops contributed to their poverty alleviation.

Most of them were Bt cotton farmers – China 6.8 million, India 2.3 million, Philippines

100 000, and in South Africa several thousand. Of the 22 countries 11 are developing countries. The biggest growth was in India who for the first time grew 3.8 million ha Bt cotton, up from 1.3 million ha the previous year, exceeding China’s 3.5 million ha.

In South Africa more than 2000 emergent farmers planted biotech crops.

Biotech crops in developing countries have increased consistently every year during the past ten years with an increase of seven million ha in 2006 over the previous year, totalling 40.9 million ha, compared to an increase of five million ha for industrial countries during the same period.

Maize, soya and cotton remain the three principal GM crops. In the USA biotech canola, squash, and papaya are also grown. In some countries GM rice is also produced.

For the first time a new GM herbicide-tolerant lucerne was commercialised in the USA. This can be good news for the thousands of lucerne growers in South Africa.

Biotech soya continued to be the principal biotech crop, grown on 58.6 million ha, followed by maize 25.2 million ha, cotton 13.4 million ha and canola 4.8 million ha. Herbicide-tolerance has consistently been the dominant trait followed by insect resistance and stacked genes.

The main growers of GM crops continued to be the USA with 54.6 million ha, followed by Argentina 18 million ha, Brazil 11.5 million ha, Canada 6.1 million ha, India 3.8 million ha and China 3.5 million ha. South Africa ranks as the eighth largest grower of biotech crops.

Growth of biotech crops in the European Union looks promising. Slovakia planted Bt maize for the first time, bringing the total number of countries planting biotech crops in the EU to six.

Spain still leads the way with 60 000 ha Bt maize. Importantly, the collective Bt maize hectarage in the other five EU countries, France, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany and Slovakia increased over five-fold in 2006, from approximately 1500 ha to 8500 ha. The biggest increase was in France, from 500 ha in 2005 to 5000 ha in 2006.

Biotech crop cultivation is now in its 11^th year (eight in South Africa), despite fearmongering campaigns by activists that GM crops supposedly pose a health and environmental threat. Not a shred of medical or scientific evidence has been produced anywhere in the world to support these claims. To the contrary, all the world’s leading academies of science and medicine and agricultural research institutions have given GM food a clean bill of health.

The future outlook for GM crops is more promising than ever. Based on the percentage growth the past ten years, it is anticipated that by 2015 at least 20 million farmers in 40 countries will be growing biotech crops on 200 million ha. Drought-tolerant crops are expected to be commercialised by 2010.

By far the most important potential contribution of biotech crops will be their contribution to the humanitarian Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of reducing poverty and hunger by 50% by 2015.

“The policy position of Agri SA regarding biotechnology was formulated by the group of commodity organisations represented in the organisation’s Commodity Chamber and can be summarised as follows:  The organisation is in favour of biotechnology development by means of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the purpose of attaining sustainable agricultural production and, simultaneously, promote profitability and competitiveness, provided that the application thereof does not detrimentally affect the health of humankind or animals, as well as the environment,” Bosman emphasised.

The Chamber has agreed that specific policy viewpoints of individual commodity organisations regarding the possible application of biotechnology as a result of the distinctiveness of the commodity branches within the three commodity branches of crop production, horticulture and animal husbandry, be left to these organisations.

South Africa has an official national biotechnology strategy, compiled in 2001, and agricultural biotechnology forms an intrinsic part thereof. It is also government policy that South Africa should develop its own biotechnological innovations. Agri SA is satisfied that this strategy complies with the requirements of the organisation.

It is also the case with the comprehensive legislation (the GMO Act of 1997, regulations and procedures) that regulates genetic modification from research to where it is made available in food form. Guidelines for biosafety and biosafety requirements have ensured, since 1990, that safety would be evaluated in depth before approval will be given for release of a GM crop.

Several new GM crops are in the pipeline. The first is maize cultivars resistant to stalk borers and also herbicide-tolerant. Locally developed maize, groundnuts and soya that will be drought-tolerant are at present being tested in field experiments, as well as potatoes with resistance against viruses and also against the potato tuber moth. Maize with resistance against maize streak virus has been developed locally. There have also been breakthroughs regarding wine grapes and sugar cane.

Research and technology development represent the corner-stone of sustainable agricultural development to promote the profitability and competitiveness of the sector. Agri SA has applied itself in the immediate past to promote improved agricultural research and technology development by means of the applicable work structure – the National Agricultural Research Forum (NARF), of which Agri SA is a member – and is actively involved in the development of the proposed Research and Development Strategy of the Department of Agriculture.

Izak van der Merwe, chairman of the Research and Technology Committee of Agri SA, also attended the triennial conference of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research in New Delhi, India, in November last year. The conference theme was the reorientation of agricultural research to reach the Millennium Development Goals.

Dr John Purchase, general manager of Grain SA, also attended the Africa Union’s workshop on the Action Plan of the African Seed and Biotechnology Program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 13 and 14 November 2006, on behalf of Agri SA.