{"id":8700,"date":"2012-03-08T14:59:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T12:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/update-1-s-africa-gm-crop-area-hit-record-in-2011-report\/"},"modified":"2012-03-08T14:59:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T12:59:45","slug":"update-1-s-africa-gm-crop-area-hit-record-in-2011-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-s-africa-gm-crop-area-hit-record-in-2011-report\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-S.Africa GM crop area hit record in 2011-report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* South Africa GM crop at record<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria have held trials<\/p>\n

(Adds more details)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

PRETORIA, March 8<\/span> (Reuters) – South Africa’s
\ngenetically modified (GM) crop area increased 100,000 hectares
\nto a record 2.3 million hectares in 2011 from 2.2 million
\nhectares in the year before, an industry report showed on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The land area cultivated under the staple maize was 1.9
\nmillion hectares, while genetically modified soya beans were
\nproduced on 450,000 ha and cotton on 15,000 ha, the report
\nissued by the International Service for the Acquisition of
\nAgri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) showed.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Such data is keenly monitored by maize traders but also by
\nfood retailers as non-GMO maize can fetch a premium in the
\nsupermarket because of public suspicions about the safety of
\nbio-tech crops.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa’s total GM crop area ranked 9th in the world,
\nthe report said and was just a fraction of the 69 million ha the
\nreport said had been planted in the United States.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The report said the west African nation of Burkina Faso, the
\nonly other African country to have embraced the technology on a
\nsignificant commercial basis, had planted about 300,000 ha of
\ncotton in 2011.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Egypt has a small GM maize crop while Kenya, Nigeria and
\nUganda have all conducted field trials and Malawi has approved
\nexperimental planting.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa is under pressure to grow more food as its population
\nincreases. Although GM crops might help boost output, some
\nAfrican countries have banned GM, fearing it could be harmful to
\nhumans and animals, hamper exports and hurt small farmers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Trials focusing on Africa’s pro-poor priority staple crops
\nincluding maize, cassava, banana and sweetpotato are making good
\nprogress,” the report said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It said trials for drought-tolerant maize were undergoing
\nsecond season trials in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. Drought
\nin major concern on the world’s poorest continent where many
\nfarmers are peasants who rely on rain. \t<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by David Dolan)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* South Africa GM crop at record * Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria have held trials (Adds more details) PRETORIA, March 8 (Reuters) – South Africa’s genetically modified (GM) crop area increased 100,000 hectares to a record 2.3 million hectares in 2011 from 2.2 million hectares in the year before, an industry report showed on Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}