New report indicates large GM potential for South Asia

(March 07, 2008) A new compendium of studies addressing the use of genetically modified plants in South Asia forecast major economic benefits. Drought- and salt-tolerant rice may provide a added value of about three billion US dollars for India.

The report was compiled by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Entitled "Economic and environmental benefits and costs of transgenic crops: Ex-Ante assessment", the publication was issued in February 2007 and contains information gathered from studies conducted in the past four years. Its aim is illumination of the impact of transgenic crops in South Asia during the next one-and-a-half decades. Particular emphasis was placed on India and Bangladesh.

The assessment was directed towards plants bearing traits currently being developed by the international Agricultural Biotechnology Support Programme II (ABSPII).

In both countries, the greatest benefits are projected to arise from drought- and salt-tolerant (DST) rice. Its use is expected to provide roughly three billion US dollars for India and more than one million US dollars for Bangladesh. These and other projections are outlined in the table below.

Potential economic and environmental benefits also are indicated by other products that are under ABSPII development in the region. In India, this denotes varieties of sunflower, groundnut, eggplant and potato that are resistant to insects or to pathogens. In Bangladesh, tests were performed with the rice and potato lines, as well as with insect-resistant eggplant and chickpea.

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development, the ABSPII is an organisation under the leadership of Cornell University. At the launch of the compendium, Susan E. Henry, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell, spoke of ASBSPII as "delivering economic and environment benefits to resource-constrained farmers."

For a copy of the publication contact Dr. KN Selvaraj of the TNAU, Coimbatore

See also on GMO Compass:

• Genetically modified rice: overview

• Preliminary studies raise hopes: Golden Rice works well!