CALGARY – Government investment in agricultural biotechnology is on the rise, especially in countries in the southern hemisphere, says an expert who tracks global adoption of genetically modified crops.
“Investment in the South is really cranking up in a very big way. The reason they’re doing it is that they can see this is the only way that they can feed their people,” said Clive James, chair of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.
Leading the way is one of Canada’s key competitors in agricultural export markets. The president of Brazil, who was initially opposed to the technology, recently committed $500 million US per year over the next 10 years to the sector.
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He has challenged private industry to match that investment, which would mean $1 billion pouring into agricultural biotechnology efforts in that country on an annual basis.
Canadian investment pales by comparison.
“It is not in the same field,” said James. “Developing countries are in fact investing much more than the West in this technology and they’re doing so because they consider that this is a security issue, a strategic issue.”
China is a good case. The country invests $200 to $300 million annually in agricultural biotechnology because it is home to 20 percent of the world’s population but has only seven percent of its arable land.
The government realizes that if it wants to decrease its reliance on food exports from other countries, it needs to increase the productive capacity of its agricultural land base by planting crops containing yield-enhancing genes, said James.
China’s positive experience with BT cotton has provided an economic reaffirmation of that political agenda. James said the crop has paid a “handsome dividend” of $800 million to $1 billion back to China’s farmers.
