What GM crops does China grow?
China has been highly effective in utilising biotechnology in the agricultural sector. Two GM insect resistant cotton varieties were approved in 1997 and were rapidly adopted. More than 53 varieties of GM cotton are now grown commercially in China, representing around 69 per cent of total cotton plantings. These varieties are either insect resistant varieties or so called stacked trait crops, containing both insect resistance and herbicide tolerance genes. China has the third largest area of GM cotton, after the United States and India, with 3.8 million ha. China also has the largest number of farmers (7.1 million) growing GM cotton. Since the late 1980s, China has been developing GM rice varieties able, for example, to resist pests such as bacterial blight, rice stem borers and leaf rollers. Other GM varieties approved for commercialisation include tomato, sweet pepper, papaya, and petunia; however, plantings of these crops remain limited. Other crops under field trials include wheat,
