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China approves new GMO cotton to raise output
China, the world's top consumer of cotton, is expected in the 12 months to August 2006 to import as much as 3.2 million tons of the fiber, the largest amount ever imported by a single country, due to smaller acreages and larger textile exports. Many farmers have shifted to wheat from cotton as Beijing has promoted grain production to ensure its food security. Zhang said the strain could produce 100 kg per mu (0.07 hectare) of cotton, or 26.4 percent more than the Monsanto variety. It would be planted in a demonstration area of 10,000 mu next year in northern provinces along the Yellow River. Last year China produced 6.32 million tons of cotton, of which 60 percent was Bt cotton developed either in China or Monsanto. Some scientists have warned the pest was developing resistance against the gene-spliced Bt cotton, commercialized in China in 1996. Xue Dayuan from Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences has also said Bt cotton was not effective in controlling secondary pests, such as cotton aphids, and that the population of some pests had increased to replace bollworms as primary pests. "In theory, such resistance exists, but so far we have not found such cases during large-area expansion," said the academy's Zhang.
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