Welcome to AgbioInvestor GM Monitor
AgbioInvestor GM Monitor is a free service from AgbioInvestor.
The service provides information on the cultivation of GM crops such as planted area, percentage of total area, production, trade and approval status. All data and written global review are available from the downloads page.
27 countries planted commercially approved GM crops in 2023, totalling 206.3 million hectares. Cultivation is most intense in the Americas where utilisation is high. The technology is currently utilised in a number of crops including maize (corn), soybean, cotton, canola and sugarbeet to confer tolerance to specific herbicides and resistance to select lepidopteran and coleopteran insect pests.
The area under GM crops has grown significantly since the first plantings in 1996. In recent years, the rate of area growth has slowed as the GM area in the leading countries has reached relative maturity. The global planted area increased 1.9% in 2023, driven by greater areas of maize, soybean and canola that more than offset a decline in areas for cotton. At the country level, areas in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kenya increased the greatest proportionally, however in volume terms Brazil increased the most, adding 3.7 million hectares of GM crops. The USA, the worlds largest GM crop area, declined by 0.4% in 2023 as result of lower soybean, cotton and sugarbeet areas.
Common GM traits are classed as:
- Herbicide tolerant
- - crops that have been developed to possess tolerance to specific crop protection herbicides. Herbicide tolerance is an input trait, meaning that the use of this trait is used in conjunction with a specific herbicide.
- Insect resistant
- - crops containing genes that produce toxins that target specific groups of insect pests. Insect pest groups so far targeted in commercial agriculture include some lepidoptera and coleoptera, and most recently hemiptera. Insect resistance is also an input trait as the use of these traits reduces or eliminates the usage of crop protection insecticides.
- Stacked trait
- - crops that possess both herbicide tolerance and insect resistance.
- Disease resistant
- - crops that have resistance to crop diseases or viruses. Disease resistance is an input trait as the use of these traits reduced the need for crop protection chemicals.
- Output Traits
- - crops that have been developed to improve abiotic stresses, modified characteristics such as oil content and higher yielding, or drought tolerance. These traits are termed output traits as the inclusion of these traits does not typically modify or impact the use of agricultural inputs.