The Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA), the regulatory body responsible for approving GMOs for agriculture and livestock in Columbia , recently approved the commercial planting of Roundup Ready soybeans (MON-04032-6) developed by Monsanto.

The approval for commercial planting of this GM soybean was made through Decree No. 2404 of July 17, 2010. Commercial planting of this RR soybean, featuring resistance to glyphosate, will be in the Orinoco region.

In addition to this authorization, ICA approved four GM events for animal consumption and/or feed production: three on maize and one on soybeans. These are:

- GA 21 Corn from Syngenta.
- Lysine LY038 Corn from Monsanto Company
- MIR 162 x Bt11 x GA21 Corn from Syngenta
- GAT Soybean from DuPont Company

ICA endorsed the expansion of areas for commercial planting of Liberty Link cotton produced by Bayer CropScience. This cotton can also be planted in the humid Caribbean coast of Colombia.

In total, 13 approvals were granted in 2010 for activities with GMOs for agricultural and livestock purposes (7 in the first term and 5 in July 2010), which include biosafety tests, research studies, commercial crops (and expansion of areas for these) and animal consumption. 

The original news in Spanish is at http://www.agrobio.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7685&Itemid=25