GE Cotton Offers Short-term Benefits, but Unpredictable Long-term Effects
27 Jul 2006
A recent study conducted by Cornell University researchers found that Chinese farmers growing genetically engineered (GE) cotton were able to reduce their pesticide use by 70 percent from 2001 to 2003. The GE cotton plant produces a bacterial toxin, Bt, which confers resistance to certain pests. However, by 2004, the study found that farmers were using about the same amount of pesticides as needed for conventionally-bred crops, and earned less than traditional farmers because of the high cost of GE seeds. The use of GE seeds in place of traditional seed varieties has sparked a debate over whether GE varieties will discourage indigenous or local peoples from preserving varieties they have cultivated over many years of selection and experimentation.
Although GE crops offer economic advantages for farmers in impoverished nations, such crops can pose ecological concerns in nations that lack a strong regulatory framework for preventing the cross-contamination of GE and conventional seeds. GE crops also might cause irreversible changes in ecosystem dynamics, affecting nearby crops and insects.
Critics argue that GE crops pressure local farmers into dependence on multinational agricultural companies for economic reasons: traditional seed varieties cannot compete with the promise of higher yields and pest resistance offered by GE crops. However, GE seeds typically must be purchased annually, as multinational agricultural companies prohibit seed saving between growing seasons, thus compelling farmers to invest more in their products. One of the primary concerns over this issue is that the continued use of GE crops by local or indigenous farmers will make extinct traditional seed varieties and even pose an ecological threat to their communities’ surrounding biodiversity. Furthermore, loss of crop biodiversity can spawn the loss of traditional agricultural practices and associated traditional knowledge.
The study, the results of which were presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association’s annual meeting on July 25, suggests that GE cotton grown in China appears to have produced short-term gains but uncertain long-term benefits. A couple of years following its introduction, that GE cotton might have triggered an increase in insect pests, thus reducing profits. For example, leaf-eating bollworms are susceptible to Bt, but mirid bugs—which are increasing tremendously in number—are not.
Huang Jikur, director of the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy, says that the research findings may have overestimated the losses caused by the GE cotton and the mirid bugs because of the unusually wet weather during 2004, when the data were collected. Nevertheless Bt-resistant pests remain a problem for the GE cotton farmers.
Source: China's GM cotton profits are short-lived, says study.
Zi Xun
26 July 2006
SciDev.Net
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