One of the significant environmental benefits of GM crops is the dramatic reduction in pesticide use, with the size of the reduction varying between crops and introduced trait.

• A study assessing the global economic and environmental impacts of biotech crops for the first twenty one years (1996-2016) of adoption showed that the technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 671.2 million kg and has reduced environmental footprint associated with pesticide use by 18.4%. The technology has also significantly reduced the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture equivalent to removing 16.75 million cars from the roads.

• According to a meta-analysis on the impacts of GM crops, GM technology has reduced chemical pesticide use by 37 percent.

• A study of U.S. maize and soybean farmers from 1998 to 2011 concluded that adopters of herbicide tolerant maize used 1.2% (0.03 kg/ha) less herbicide than non-adopters, and adopters of insect resistant maize used 11.2% (0.013 kg/ha) less insecticide than non-adopter

• In China, use of Bt cotton resulted in pesticide use reduction of 78,000 tons of formulated pesticides in 2001. This corresponds to about a quarter of all the pesticides sprayed in China in the mid-1990s

•  Furthermore, another study covering data collected from 1999 to 2012 showed that Bt cotton adoption has caused a significant reduction in pesticide use.

• The use of Bt cotton can substantially reduce the risk and incidence of pesticide poisonings to farmers.

• Herbicide tolerant crops have facilitated the continued expansion of conservation tillage, especially no-till cultivation system, in the USA. The adoption of conservation and no-till cultivation practices saved nearly 1 billion tons of soil per year.

• Biotech cotton has been documented to have a positive effect on the number and diversity of beneficial insects in the US and Australian cotton fields.

• Adoption of Bt corn in the Philippines did not show an indication that Bt corn had negative effect on insect abundance and diversity

Best Regards
Rebecca Pearson
Editorial Manager