AgricultureAgriculture

Global acceptance of biotech crops increased in 2006, with acreage reaching 102 million hectares in 22 countries, according to a new report.

The international treaty on plant genetic resources needs a gesture of trust to repair the atmosphere of suspicion that has developed, argues Emile Frison from the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.

The annual growth of biotech cultivation grew last year at its slowest pace since 1996, when biotech crops were first commercialised, according to a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, a non-profit group that advocates the use of bio-crops.