Five years after the lifting of Australia’s GM crop moratorium, the acceptance of genetically modified canola remains lacklustre, with genetically modified canola representing just nine percent of the most recent crop.
This is unlike Canada, which has embraced GM canola varieties since their release in 1995, with GM yields representing 55 percent of the total crop just five years after their introduction.
According to weeklytimesnow, uptake of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready canola has been stagnant since it was approved in 2009 for Victoria and NSW and in 2010 for Western Australia.
Monsanto technology development manager, Tony May, said Australia's slower uptake was because there was a greater herbicide resistance problem, particularly in Western Australia, so growers made decisions based on agronomic factors.
220,401ha of the herbicide resistant canola variety, Roundup Ready canola, was planted across Australia for the crop just harvested, and despite its slow growth, GM canola plantings were up 48 percent from 2010 to 2013.
Breakdown of GM canola plantings in Australia
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Victoria planted about 21,323ha of Roundup Ready canola varieties in 2013, five percent of the state’s estimated 400,000ha canola crop. This is up 12 percent on last year, but almost half of the 39,405ha of GM canola planted in 2010.
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GM canola crop in NSW fell 22 percent in 2013 to 31,573ha but nationally it was the biggest GM canola crop ever.
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Western Australia has seen rapid adoption since 2010, last year planting 167,596ha of Roundup Ready canola – 14 percent of its total crop and up 38 percent from the previous year.
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Earlier this month, Tasmania extended indefinitely its moratorium on genetically modified crops and animals as a means of protecting the state’s reputation as a clean food producer
- South Australia is the only mainland state maintaining a ban on genetically modified crop production and trials, recently extending a moratorium until at least 2019.