Czechs profit by allowing GM crops to exist with conventional crops
They go together like chalk and cheese. Like orange and green, they should never be seen together. Genetically modified crops just can’t be permitted to contaminate conventional or organic ones.
But judging by farmer experience in the Czech Republic, where 1290ha of GM maize was grown commercially this year, there is no reason why co-existence can’t succeed.
Fast-moving Czech policymakers have ensured their country is the first in the EU to enshrine co-existence rules in the law and to have suitable GM varieties approved and grown commercially.
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Just over 140 years later Czech farmers like Karel Klaska are reaping the benefits of this latest gene revolution. He has 20ha of commercial insect-tolerant GM maize this year on his 4150ha Bonagro farm outside Brno.
Mr Klaska was one of the 52 Czech farmers who grew 270ha of GM maize last year, and is one of the 85 involved this year.
He is pleased with the way the crop is performing. Instead of struggling to forecast pest attack and having insecticide applied by air to the 1.5m tall crop, maybe twice, Mr Klaska’s GM seed has produced pristine, undamaged crops with no further input.
That brings two benefits. First, it protects yield, which he estimates to be 10% higher than conventional varieties. “Even with insecticide or biological control yield can suffer. It is just so difficult to get treatments on at the right time.”
Grain quality is also better, the undamaged GM crops carrying almost no mycotoxin-producing fusarium. “Mycotoxins are a real worry. They can depress animal output and buyers monitor for them, too, to protect human health.”
The net result is a 10% gross margin benefit, even after the £25/ha price premium charged for GM seed. That gross margin boost can be the difference between profit and loss.
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But without co-existence laws to protect him against the risk of GM contamination claims from conventional or organic farming neighbours, Mr Klaska and his fellow GM pioneers would have struggled.
“The co-existence laws save me from worrying about claims from neighbouring farmers, but they also mean a lot of form filling, monitoring and extra farm procedures to avoid GM cross-contamination, as well as labelling products from animals that have been fed with GM maize,” notes Mr Klaska.
Significantly, the rules only address the economic aspects of growing GM crops, not any risks to the environment or health, because those were addressed in the approvals process, notes Marie Cerovska, the Czech ministry of agriculture’s coexistence expert.
So far most Czech GM cropping has been in areas well apart from conventional or organic maize, a sensible co-existence measure in itself. When Mr Klaska consulted his neighbours, for example, he found none was growing maize. But co-existence measures still needed to be applied.
“All the administration needed to comply with the co-existence rules is a new thing for me. But I understand that this is a new crop and despite such downsides, the advantages more than outweigh the disadvantages.” GM will certainly cover more of his 660ha maize crop next year, particularly now that feed compounders are prepared to buy GM crop.
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But it has not all been plain sailing. Despite 97% of last year’s 52 growers claiming a 5-20% yield benefit, more than half walked away from the crop this year, put off by the extra paperwork, protester pressure or buyers refusing to accept farm products from animals fed with GM maize.
Jan Dobrovolny, who grows 300ha of maize on a 1700ha farm south of Brno, is one such farmer. He has been impressed by trials on his farm, which have left GM maize standing while corn borer-hit conventional crops have been knocked down as if by a storm. “It is very alarming.”
| IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF NAPOLEON? |
| One of the largest fields of GM maize in the Czech Republic is growing on part of the ancient Austerlitz battlefield, where Napoleon’s French forces defeated a combined Austrian/Russian army in December 1805, by launching an audacious attack across what is now a 20ha field of GM maize. Could that prove to be deeply prophetic? Napoleon triumphed here, but was later defeated in northern Europe. Will the same fate befall GM crops in the EU, or will they go on to greater and better things? |
He is eager to feed GM maize to his dairy cattle, to cut costs and avoid mycotoxin problems. But the dairy he supplies is one of the few in the Czech Republic that insists producers guarantee their cattle are not fed home-grown GM maize. That is despite all bought-in feed containing imported GM soya. “It is a big hypocrisy.”
Vitezslav Navratil, chairman of the 8800ha Rostenice farming company, has grown 200ha of GM maize, with no co-existence problems. Anti-GM activists tried to dissuade him, but he was so enthused by the technology that he went on national TV to defend his right to grow it under Czech law.
Some grain is fed to pigs and poultry raised and slaughtered within the large integrated farming business some is sold to feed compounders.
He plans to double the area for feed use and also plans to include 300ha of GM maize to feed a methane fermentation system supplying an on-farm electricity generator. He puts the yield advantage of conventional GM maize at 10%.
Oldrich Horak, who runs an 800ha family farm, was equally enthusiastic in the first year, but succumbed to protester pressure last year, when his family was targeted by activists. He plans a return to production in 2007, having witnessed “ludicrous claims” from protesters, arguing that the grain would poison birds in a nearby nature reserve.
Food chain
So far most Czech GM maize is fed on-farm, but what happens when more GM maize is sold into the food chain, for feed compounding? Segregation, traceability and labelling guidelines are in place throughout the food chain, says Ms Cerovska.
Non-GM batches may face costly tests to prove they are inside the 0.9% cross-contamination threshold, admits Miroslav Jirovsky, chairman of the Czech agricultural industries association. But the efficiency gains from GM crops make them crucial to Czech farming – without them the industry will be unable to compete with cheap imports from overseas, he argues.
The last word goes to Jan Veleba, president of the Czech chamber of agriculture. He believes co-existence rules can safeguard what he sees as a crucial technology for Czech farmers.
“GM crops have been demonised across Europe, but we believe scientific developments can not be stopped, only slowed, and the appliance of GM cropping will generate competitive advantage, increasing quality while reducing energy use and environmental burdens. Without them North America will gallop ahead, leaving the EU at a real competitive disadvantage.”
The question is whether UK farming can, or should, follow where Czech farming leads.
Are you ready to grow GM crops in the UK? Has enough been done to develop a system to keep GM, conventional and organic crops separate? Have your say on our forums
| CZECH RULES ON GM CO-EXISTENCE |
| All the GM grain maize being grown contains the Mon810 Bt insect tolerance gene, in a range of varieties suited to Czech farming, currently dominated by Pioneer varieties Bolsa and Bacila. Last year 270ha was grown, rising to 1290ha this year, already exceeding the entire Czech organic grain maize area. At least a further 5-fold growth in area to 6500ha is anticipated in 2007. The co-existence laws now in place stem from scientific trials to pinpoint the measures needed to prevent adjacent crops or other crop batches from being contaminated beyond the EU’s 0.9% admix threshold for GM labelling, or the Czech Republic’s 0% tolerance for organic labelling (the latter is out of step with EU policy and is due to be harmonised to the same 0.9% level.) The rules include considerable margins for error. They include potatoes, in anticipation of BASF’s high-starch GM varieties being commercially grown from 2008. Binding measures:
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