Keywords: genetically modified crops, agricultural biotechnology, biotechnology breeding, China, biotechnology industry, grain production, total grain output, modernization development
Text: From 1996 to 29, with the large-scale planting and promotion of genetically modified crops (hereinafter referred to as "GM crops") in the world, the global use of pesticides on GM crops decreased by 392,73 tons. The development of GM crops poses new challenges to the pesticide industry, but it also brings new opportunities for some pesticide products. This is the information that the reporter got at the 11th National Pesticide Exchange Conference a few days ago.
according to statistics, during the 15 years from 1996 to 21, the planting area of GM crops in the world has been continuously expanded, with a 3-fold increase in 15 years, with a total planting of 1 billion hectares and a 5-fold increase in market value, reaching $12 billion in 21. The income of countries and farmers who grow GM crops is increasing. According to the survey of Brazil Seed Association, Brazil has saved 5.9 billion dollars by planting GM crops in the past 1 years. It is estimated that the adoption of GM crops will potentially save 8 billion dollars for Brazilian farmers in the next 1 years. The number of countries planting GM crops has increased to 29, and the types of planting continue to increase. In addition to genetically modified soybeans, corn and cotton, wheat, potatoes and papaya have been newly developed and commercialized. It can be seen that GM crops are popular in some countries because of their market value and other factors.
It is a challenge but also an opportunity
According to Hu Xiaoxing, editor-in-chief of China Pesticides, the annual growth rate of GM crops was double digits from 26 to 21, while the annual increase rate of traditional pesticide market was single digits or negative growth except for 1% in 28.
from the perspective of pesticides, the cumulative area of GM crops from 26 to 21 was 623.3 million hectares, of which 393.12 million hectares were herbicide-resistant crops, accounting for 63.%. Most herbicide-tolerant crops are glyphosate-tolerant, which greatly squeezes the market of selective herbicides. According to experts' estimation, the variety of herbicides has decreased by 1%~15% due to the emergence of herbicide-tolerant crops, which also makes it more difficult to create new herbicides in recent years. It takes 4 ~ 5 thousand compounds to delete a new herbicide, and the research investment of selective herbicides by companies has decreased. From 1996 to 29, planting transgenic insect-resistant crops reduced pesticides by 189, tons, and the area of transgenic insect-resistant crops increased by 7% annually, which brought severe challenges to the pesticide market.
From the crop point of view, the development of GM rice will lead to a major adjustment of pesticides used in rice. For example, the planting of Bt insect-resistant rice that has obtained the national safety certificate will reduce the use of pesticides in rice by 8%, and the glyphosate-tolerant rice being developed can control all weeds. GM wheat in the future will also have an important impact on the pesticide industry. For example, Britain has developed aphid-resistant wheat, Dow Agricultural Science and DuPont have each developed an insect-resistant/herbicide-resistant wheat. It is estimated that after 8 to 1 years, the industrial planting of these GM wheat will have a great impact on the existing wheat herbicide, insecticide and fungicide system.
Challenges and opportunities coexist, and the development of GM crops has also brought great opportunities to the pesticide industry. For example, the large-scale planting of glyphosate-resistant crops will make glyphosate beautiful, and the upcoming listing of 24-D and "fop" herbicide (aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicide) will usher in a new development world for 24-D and dicamba, as well as other herbicide-resistant crops such as ammonium phosphate, bromocyanide, sulfonylurea and imidazolinone. These herbicide-tolerant crops have brought new vitality to the old herbicide varieties. As for fungicides, due to the slow development of transgenic disease-resistant crops, there is still a lot of room for development of fungicides. For example, wheat is the only staple food crop that has not been planted on a large scale so far, and disease-resistant wheat is also in the research and development stage. It is estimated that it will take 1 to 15 years before large-scale planting can be realized, and the research on disease-resistant GM crops of other crops is also lagging behind. Therefore, there is still a lot of room for development of fungicides.
tolerance, acceptance and positive response
facing the challenges and opportunities of GM crops to pesticide industry, how do multinational companies respond? Through strategic adjustment, multinational companies have increased their investment in GM crops and developed related GM crops from their own superior pesticides, such as Roundup Ready crops developed by Monsanto and Libertylink crops developed by Bayer. In addition, there are many examples of cooperation between several giants. For example, BASF and Monsanto cooperated to develop and use the GM crop system in dicamba, and the joint result was to enhance their monopoly in the seed field. In addition to cooperation, several major agrochemical giants have further strengthened their monopoly through the acquisition of seed companies. For example, in the past 2 years, Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Daonongke have acquired more than 2 seed companies, and now they completely control the global seed market, and Monsanto has become the largest seed company in the world.
At the Asia-Pacific Summit of Agrochemicals in 211, when talking about the challenge of GM crops to the pesticide industry, Mr. Duchamp, senior vice president of Longdeng Crop Technology Co., Ltd. said that every enterprise has its own foothold, and we should be tolerant of the emergence of a new thing. Moreover, it is up to each country to decide whether to adopt GM crops. For example, EU member States are cautious about GM crops, and economic factors are the driving force for enterprises to promote new products. Gold will shine, and GM needs a lot of technology collection.