One of the selling points for many genetically engineered crops has been that farmers will need fewer inputs and therefore have higher returns per hectare. However, two recently released studies indicate that this may not be the case.
Researchers at the University of Arkansas recently found that net income from land planted with Bt cotton was less than land planted with conventional cotton by an average of $US62.50 per hectare in 1997, based on observations in three Arkansas counties.
(Bt cotton is genetically engineered to produce its own pest-killing toxin. Currently, Monsanto dominates the engineered-cotton market.)
Researchers compared fields planted with Bt cotton to similar fields within the same farms that were planted with conventional cotton.
Previously, researchers had found that Bt cotton performed well in Arkansas in 1996, and economic studies from the Mississippi delta and south-eastern states showed a substantial increase in net income per hectare planted with Bt cotton that year.
However, in the University of Arkansas study, Bt cotton showed less profit than non-Bt cotton in four of seven observations, and on average yielded 27 kg per hectare less than non-Bt cotton.
According to the study, net income of Bt cotton was highly variable. This variation and the overall lower profits of Bt cotton were attributed to technology fees added to the cost of genetically engineered seed, yield differences, costs of plant growth regulators and the need to harvest fields twice.
A second study released by American Cyanamid, a US multinational agrochemical company and one of Monsanto's main competitors, found that farmers could experience yield losses of up to US$107 per hectare when planting Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans.
Roundup Ready soybeans are genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate (Monsanto's Roundup).
The findings were based on a series of field trials conducted for American Cyanamid in 1997 by growers across US soybean-growing regions. The difference in yield was found when growers planted Roundup Ready soybeans and applied Roundup Ultra herbicide once.
Monsanto maintains that there is no loss of yield with Roundup Ready soybeans. However, Doug Dorsey, Monsanto's US Roundup Ready soybean manager, conceded that some growers are seeing reduced yields on some of their fields.
He says that this is due to two factors: farmers are often using Roundup Ready beans to clean up "especially weedy acreage", and "ideal" Roundup Ready soybean varieties are not yet available in all areas.
In 1997, Monsanto's agricultural product sales grew to over US$3 billion, sales of Roundup growing by more than 20%. Much of the increase in Roundup sales was in Latin America, the US, Australia and parts of Asia. The company is anticipating further increases as a result of the introduction of other glyphosate-tolerant crops.
[From Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service.] .