A joint study, made by Chinese and US scientists, has proved overwhelming merits brought by GM rice, whether in terms of drastically reduced pesticide application, or of noticeably increased yield, or of economic and health benefits.
Jointly conducted by Jikun Huang, Director, the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruifa Hu, a professor working for the same Center, Prof. Scott Rozelle, University of California, and Prof. Carl Pray, Rutgers University, the study targets at two insects resistant hybrids: GM Xianyou 63, containing the bacillus thuringiensis resistant genes, and GM Youming 86, containing the CpTI genes. The two hybrids entered pre-production trials in 2001, over a limited area in Fujian Province. Scientists made random survey on farmers who grew two GM hybrids wholly or partially, in 2002 and 2003 respectively. At the same time, they compared notes with the situation of farmers who grew non-GM rice. Survey results have shown that, under similar farming conditions, GM rice producers applied pesticides less than once every quarter of a year, compared to 3.7 times by non-GM rice producers. In the same context, the pesticides applied in the GM rice fields are only 1/8 or 1/10 that in the non-GM rice fields.
In addition, the yield produced by GM Xianyou 63 marks 9 percent higher than non-GM lines. GM Youming 86 does not show noticeable yield differences from its non-GM counterparts, possibly as the result of too limited a trial scale. |
