In recent years, African spring rains came late, decreasing maize crop production in South Africa. The El Niño weather
biotech country Facts & Trends
South Africa
In 2016, South Africa planted 2.66 million hectares of the three major biotech crops: maize, soybean, and cotton. In recent years, African spring rains came late, decreasing maize crop production in South Africa. The El Niño weather pattern persisted from 2015 through 2016, seriously damaging all agricultural sectors. A La Niña pattern developed later in December with good rainfall in most parts of the country, except the far western provinces. Promising outcomes include increased late planting of food crops and expected higher crop yields per hectare. In 2016, the total area planted to biotech crops in South Africa was 2.66 million hectares, comprised of maize, soybean, and cotton – a 16% increase from the reported biotech crop area of 2.29 million hectares in 2015. The average biotech crop adoption increased marginally at 91% in 2016. The area planted to biotech maize in South Africa in 2016 is estimated at 2.16 million hectares at an adoption level of 90% of the 2.4 million total maize hectares. This hectarage is broken down into 420,000 hectares insect
resistant; 407,000 hectares herbicide tolerant; and 1.33 million hectares of stacked Bt/HT. Herbicide tolerant soybean was planted on 494,000 hectares in 2016, which is 95% of the total soybean area in South Africa. In 2016, 9,000 hectares were planted to the stacked insect resistant/herbicide tolerant biotech cotton, a 25% decrease in planting due to drought and low global cotton price.
Biotech Crop Adoption in south africa South Africa planted insect resistant cotton, its first biotech crop, in 1998. Insect resistant maize was planted in 2000, herbicide tolerant soybean in 2001, and herbicide tolerant maize in 2003. Since 1998, the 70 events approved for planting in South Africa include 5 Argentine canola events, 10 for cotton, 42 for
maize, 1 rice event (for food), and 12 soybean events. future prospects South Africa, together with Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda are involved in the development and deployment of biotech maize under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project. Maize varieties with stacked drought tolerance and insect resistance were approved in June 2015, but seeds will only be available in late 2017 to a limited number of smallholders. The official wide scale release to commercial farms is planned for 2018. South African scientists interact and collaborate with international biotech counterparts, and conduct research on genomics and all other ‘omics.’ The first sequencing of an organism in Africa was done by local scientists on the livestock heart water parasite, as was the first animal cloning of a goat. Some new local innovations in biotech are: a patent on RNA hairpin duplexes for resistance to plant viruses, exploring valuable proteins in cassava leaves and modifying cassava to resist viruses, developing tobacco plants as biopharma factories for antibodies, a new antimalaria drug, and marker genes for improved detection of new gene mutations that cause cystic fibrosis. Awaiting regulatory approvals are: novel promoters, drought tolerance genes, maize streak virus resistance, and a range of experimental GM sugarcane events. Following years of extensive testing new GM varieties move to contained field trials (CFT). The CFT approved in 2016 include three varieties of cotton, each
containing several stacked genes with insect resistance and herbicide tolerant traits. In 2016, there was no approval for general commercial release. Benefits from biotech crops in south africa It is estimated that the economic gains from biotech crops for South Africa for the period 1998 to 2015 was ~US$2.1 billion and US$237 million for 2015 alone (Brookes and Barfoot, 2016). source ISAAA. 2016. Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2016. ISAAA Brief No. 52. ISAAA: Ithaca, New York.
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