Crop Protection South America Monthly Report

With the economic development and growing world population, the demand for food and energy keeps increasing strongly in the world. South America, as one of the world’s main supplier of food and energy, plays an important role in meeting the demand.

In 2012, there are two opposite views on GM crops in South America. Some countries in South America choose to keep on planting GM crops such as Brazil and Argentina. Although GM crops are triggering more concerns about the food security, the high yield of GM crops still attracts more farmers to plant them. Moreover, the demand for fertilizers in Brazil will increase in 2012/13 thanks to the record planting area of GM crops, while the production of GM seeds in Chile will also break a record in 2012/13.

However, some countries in South America decide to ban the GM crops such as Peru and Bolivia, with Bolivia likely to resume the use of GM seeds amid strong opposition from local farmers. Although the production and benefits of traditional crops are lower compared with GM crops, the governments in these countries still believe that traditional crops are more favorable for the environment than GM crops.