Economic Impact of GM Crops in Argentina

GM crops have positively affected Argentina’s agricultural sector, as well as its economy. This is among the conclusions of Eduardo Trigo and Eugenio Cap in their report published by the Argentine Council for Information and Development of Biotechnology (ArgenBio).

Argentina is currently the second largest producer of GM crops worldwide. Trigo and Cap examined herbicide-tolerant soybean, Bt corn and Bt cotton. They reported that soybean varieties grown in the country are now all GM, indicating very rapid adoption of the technology. The gross benefits for growing herbicide-tolerant soybean total to about US$20 billion over the last ten years; for Bt corn about US$482 million; and for Bt cotton about US$21 million. Majority of this amount went to farmers, while the rest to seed suppliers, herbicide suppliers, and the Argentine government.

GM crops were cited to also have indirect positive impacts to Argentina including increasing the productivity in the livestock sector, job creation, growth in gross domestic product (GDP), and considerable savings to consumers.

Links to the press release and the full report (in Spanish and English) can be found at http://www.argenbio.com/h/nuevo_estudio/10anos.php