Andalusian Farmers and Government Officials Want Biotech Crops
A recently concluded conference of the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) in Seville and Antama gave an added boost to the adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops by farmers in the region. The conference with the theme "Transgenic crops: a technological need for sustainable and efficient production in the Andalusian countryside" was attended by about a hundred participants. Highlighting the conference was the opening message from Secretary General of UPA Sevilla Jose Antonio Mendes who said that "We have put biotechnology to work for our farmers, which is beneficial for agriculture to reduce pesticide use and mitigate climate change by reducing fuel and CO2 emissions." He also noted that the global GM area in 2010 grew by 14 million hectares.
Experts in GM crops such as John Arechederra Soledad, Foundation ANTAMA; Joaquimma Messeguer, Research Institute of Catalonia and Food Technology (IRTA), and Javier Fernandez, Secretary of Agriculture and Markets UPA-Andalusia provided key messages on the use and benefits of biotech crops. Javier Fernandez called for the UPA introduction of biotech cotton in Andalusia noting that 64% of world cotton is already genetically modified.
See the original Spanish press release for more details at http://www.upa-andalucia.es/intranet/upaintranet/documentos/noticias/doc1246.pdf
This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
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