A 2006 update of Impacts on US Agriculture of Biotechnology-Derived Crops Planted in 2005

The National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy will be releasing a report entitled "Quantification of the impacts on US agriculture of biotechnology-derived crops planted in 2005" on November 16, 2006. This report is one of the annual updates to an initial study released in 2002. The current report evaluated the reasons behind the adoption of biotechnology-derived crops on 123 million acres in the United States in their tenth year of commercial planting (2005) and analyzed the producer and crop production impacts that resulted from this widespread adoption.

Quantification of the impacts on US agriculture of biotechnology-derived crops planted in 2005
Sujatha Sankula Ph.D

Key Findings

The current report, an update to the 2005 released “Biotechnology-Derived Crops Planted in 2004 – Impacts on US Agriculture”, confirms that American growers continued to choose biotechnology-derived crops in 2005, the tenth year of their commercial planting, because they realized significant benefits from planting these crops. This report evaluated the reasons behind the adoption of biotechnology-derived crops on 123 million acres in
the United States in their tenth year of commercial planting (2005) and analyzed the producer and crop production impacts that resulted from this widespread adoption. American growers planted eight biotechnology-derived crops (alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, papaya, soybean, squash, and sweet corn) in 2005. Planted acreage was mainly concentrated in 13 different applications (herbicide-resistant alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, and soybean; virus-resistant squash and papaya; three applications of insect-resistant corn, two applications of insect-resistant cotton, and insect-resistant sweet corn). Though the number of planted traits remained the same at three in 2005, similar to 2004, expanded acreage of 4 percent has led to overall increase in crop yield and farm income and further reduction in pesticide use.

Executive Summary
http://www.ncfap.org/whatwedo/pdf/2005biotechExecSummary.pdf

Quantification of the impacts
http://www.ncfap.org/whatwedo/pdf/2005biotechimpacts-finalversion.pdf