Abstract:
The rapid adoption of transgenic crops during the initial six-year period, 1996 to 2001 reflects the substantial multiple benefits realized by both large and small farmers in industrial and developing countries that have grown transgenic crops commercially. Between 1996 and 2001, a total of sixteen countries, 10 industrial and 6 developing, contributed to more than a thirty fold increase in the global area of transgenic crops from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 52.6 million hectares in 2001. The cumulative area of transgenic crops planted during the five-year period 1996 to 2001 total 175 million hectares, equivalent to more than 430 million acres