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By Lee Chyen Yee

 
GUILIN, China, June 28 (Reuters) - China will set the pace in planting genetically modified (GM) cotton with its acreage seen growing the fastest in coming years, Chinese agricultural officials and cotton analysts said on Thursday.

Beijing is gearing up to push farmers to sow more GM cotton seeds to combat ravaging bollworms, reduce planting costs and increase yields, a senior Chinese agricultural official said.

"I see the growing area of the transgenic insect-resistant cotton in China expanding in the next few years," Du Min of the research centre for rural economy at the Ministry of Agriculture told an international cotton conference in Guilin.

She declined to provide a figure for the acreage increase.

China has been active in researching and growing Bt cotton, which contains the bacterium Bacillus thuringienesis proteins and is resistant to corn borers, bollworms and other pests that damage cotton plants.

It is effective mainly against the bollworm in its first and second generations, but becomes increasingly vulnerable to the third and fourth generations.

The acreage of transgenic insect-resistant cotton in China rocketed to about one million hectares in 2000, or 28 percent of the country's total cotton area, from less than 100,000 hectares in 1998, or 2.2 percent of the total area.

China's cotton acreage is expected to rise 14.9 percent to 4.63 million hectares in 2001.

GM COTTON RISING FASTEST

"China will become the most important country with regards to using Bt technology," Carlos Valderrama, chief economist at the International Cotton Advisory Committee, told Reuters.

"China will be having, over the next seasons, greater growth in areas dedicated to Bt cotton ... The area in China will increase the fastest," he said.

Analysts welcomed China's approach to Bt research, involving foreign companies like Monsanto and the government.

"It's not only the multinationals who have been conducting this, but in China, there is also independent government research," Valderrama said.

Monsanto's Bt cotton covers about 240,000 hectares in China.

The New York-listed firm has gained government approval to grow Bt cotton in the eastern provinces of Hebei, Anhui and Shandong and is awaiting the green light to plant in Hubei and Henan, company officials said earlier in June.

Domestic Bt cotton is also gaining ground.

"In 2001, the growing area of domestic Guokang GM cotton will reach 800,000 hectares," from 350,000 hectares in 2000, Du said in a research report presented at the conference.

The Guokang series was developed by the Cotton Research Centre and the Biotechnology Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Du also said planting more GM cotton was in line with government plans to increase rural incomes as farmers could spend less on pesticides and labour, while selling more cotton with increased yields.

08:27 06-28-01

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