Bangladesh, China, India lead in BT crop

China, India and Bangladesh lead the global surge in biotech crops, which touched an all-time high of 181.5 million hectares (mh) in 2014, a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) showed on Friday.

In 2013, the area under the crops was about 185 mh. “The accumulated hectare of biotech crops, grown in 1996 to 2014 stood at around 80 per cent more than the total land mass of China,” said Clive James, ISAAA Founder and report author.

About 10 food, feed and fiber biotech crops have been approved, planted and consumed around the world during the 1996 to 2014 period. According to the report, the US continues to lead planting at 73.1 million hectares.