Australia
March 31, 2008
 GM
crops: potential benefits to Australian agriculture
GM oilseed and wheat crops, if adopted, could provide
significant benefits to Australian agriculture, according to a
new ABARE report GM
crops in emerging economies: impacts on Australian agriculture.
‘The uptake of GM oilseeds and wheat could lead to a gain of
$912 million in the Australian economy by 2018 relative to what
would otherwise be the case,’ Phillip Glyde, ABARE Executive
Director, said on releasing the report.
The economic benefit of GM crops is estimated under the
assumptions that imports of GM crops are not restricted in
foreign markets and the emerging economies of Argentina, Brazil,
India and China will fully adopt these GM crops by 2018.
‘Australia will forgo significant economic gains by delaying the
introduction of GM oilseeds and wheat if emerging economies
continue to increase their uptake of GM crops,’ Mr Glyde said.
Argentina, Brazil, India and China, in aggregate, account for
around 39 per cent of the world’s total GM crop plantings and
this share is expected to increase as they continue to introduce
GM crops at a faster pace than other countries.
The increase in GM crop adoption has increased on-farm
productivity, farm incomes and reduced input use in these
emerging economies.
Under an alternative scenario where it is assumed that the
European Union bans the importation of GM crops from GM adopting
countries, the estimated gain to the Australian economy of
adopting GM oilseeds and wheat would reduce to $732 million in
2018, compared with what would otherwise be the case.
Full report:
http://www.abareconomics.com/publications_html/crops/crops_08/gmcrops.pdf
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