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Question

What is the advantages of GMO? What is the principle of disease resistance of GMO and economic advantages?

Submitted by: 1234567890


Answer

Expert response from Scott Kohne

NAFTA Market Acceptance Manager, Seeds & Traits Unit, BBASF

Monday, 08/12/2014 14:59

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), between 1996 and 2012, GM crops contributed to food security, sustainability, the environment and climate change in many ways, including: 

 

  • Increasing crop production valued at US$116.9 billion
  • Conserving biodiversity by saving 123 million hectares of land
  • Helping to alleviate poverty for 16.5 million small, resource-poor farmers and farm families (equaling approximately 65 million people total)
  • Reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint by reducing CO2 emissions by 26.7 billion kg (equal to taking 11.8 million cars off the road for one year)

 

As a practical tool for farmers, GM technology provides a number of solutions useful to farmers today. A perfect example of the importance of creating disease-resistant plants is the case of the rainbow papaya in the United States. Because of technology, US consumers have access to an abundant supply of fresh papaya from Hawaii, most of which is derived from a GM variety that was created by scientists at the University of Hawaii. This variety is resistant to a devastating disease — papaya ringspot virus

 

By 1997, this virus had almost destroyed Hawaii’s papaya industry. Production fell by nearly 40 percent, and the state’s once-$17 million business struggled to survive as farmers went out of business. Within four years after commercialization of the rainbow papaya, production returned to the same approximate levels it sustained before the ringspot virus invasion.