Expansionary Institute

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

 
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Area sown with genetically-modified seed in Argentina will increase 10 percent for soybeans and 14 percent for corn during the 2000/2001 campaign, the Argentine Seed Association (ASA) said on Thursday.

Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean producer, and the coming crop will be 90-percent transgenic versus more than 80 percent in the previous season, ASA said in a communique.

ASA is an umbrella group that encompasses major seed players such as Novartis AG , Monsanto Co. and Aventis .

Genetically-modified (GM) crops are bitterly opposed by environmental groups who say not enough is known about them to allow their widespread distribution in the marketplace.

Gene-spliced soy will be planted over 8.55 million hectares in Argentina for the 2000/2001 harvest, far above the 6.64 million hectares sown in 1999/2000.

The overall 2000/2001 soy crop is expected to cover 10.3 million hectares.

GM corn plantings during the same season will take up 560,000 hectares, or about 20 percent of overall planted area estimated at 3.23 million hectares by the Agriculture Department.

That compares with 192,000 hectares of GM corn planted the previous season as part of overall terrain of 3.6 million hectares devoted to the grain.

Argentina is the world's second-largest corn exporter.

11:41 11-30-00

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