GM canola to boost Australia crop by 20 pct - report
Date: 28-Mar-03
Country: AUSTRALIA
The report, released as a long-awaited official decision approaches on whether transgenic canola crops will be allowed in Australia, says national canola production would increase by almost 300,000 tonnes a year if GM crops were introduced.
"The adoption of GM canola is likely to provide significant benefits...by increasing canola production through higher yields and expansion of areas," Dr Robert Norton of the University of Melbourne's School of Agriculture and Food Systems said.
Australia would achieve little export growth and suffer declining international competitiveness if it did not adopt GM canola crops, the report said.
Canola, widely used a cooking oil around the world, would become Australia's first GM food crop if given official approval. Cotton and carnations are the only transgenic crops so far commercially grown in Australia.
Rapid expansion of Australia's canola industry, to 2.4 million tonnes in 1999/00 from just 200,000 tonnes in 1991/92, has made it the world's second biggest exporter after Canada, whose crop is more than 60 percent GM.
The Melbourne University report forecast that GM canola would boost average Australian yields to 1.38 tonnes per hectare from 1.27, boosting production by 295,000 tonnes a year.
Wheat production would also increase by 64,000 tonnes on the additional canola area because of fertiliser benefits which flow to a wheat crop grown after a canola crop, the report said.
The direct increase in canola and wheat production would be worth A$135 million ($81 million) a year, the report said.
But with canola boosting wheat yields overall by 20 percent because of fertiliser benefits, Australia would reap an extra 500,000 tonnes of wheat worth A$100 million a year overall because of the canola crop, the report said.
RISKS "MANAGEABLE"
GM canola reduced herbicide use in the Canadian industry by 40 percent, the report said. This was in line with Monsanto Co's (MON.N) Ingard GM cotton, which had reduced pesticide use in the Australian industry by 50 percent between 1999 and 2001, it said.
Monsanto field work claimed a 10-20 percent yield benefit over conventional canola and a 20 percent benefit over conventional herbicide-tolerant canola, the report said.
This was consistent with Canadian yield benefits, it said.
Risks such as the movement of pollen from GM to conventional crops were considered manageable, the university report said.
The study was based on GM canola replacing 50 percent of conventional herbicide-tolerant canola and 40 percent of conventional canola, with an additional 160,000 hectares planted to the oilseed because of the new technology.
After years of debate and official inquiries, two proposed GM canola varieties are currently under advanced consideration by national authority The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
One, InVigor, is produced by Germany's Bayer CropScience (BAYG.DE). RoundupReady is produced by U.S.-based Monsanto.
The regulator is seen close to issuing a risk assessment report, which would open two months of public comment, allowing just enough time for the planting of a 2003 GM crop.