France: Surface of GM corn quadruples
The area sown with GM-corn multiplied by four in France compared to 2006, said Luc Esprit, general director of the French corn producers association AGPM.
“At present we recorded 21.200 hectares sown with GM corn in 2007 compared
with only 5.420 hectares in 2006”, Esprit specified the data.
Still the
commercial growing of GM-corn accounts for only 0.75% of the total surface
cultivated for corn in France, which is about 2.9 million hectares. Of this
area, about half (1.4 million hectares) is intended for growing corn for animal
feeds.
AGPM foresees an explosion of the commercial cultivation of
GM-corn in the next years, mainly because of Spanish demand and increasing
damage of devastating insects on the traditional corn crops, Esprit explained.
“French farmers are very much interested. A new quadrupling of surfaces in 2008
can be expected”, AGPM president Christophe Terrain added.
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