A genetically modified cotton plant, which makes up 35 percent of
China's crop, is damaging the environment despite its success in
controlling the bollworm, according to a report released in Beijing
Monday.
The plant, Bt transgenic cotton, harms natural parasitic enemies of
the bollworm and seems to be encouraging other pests, according to
the study by the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIES)
under the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Researchers have seen a significant decrease in populations of the
bollworm's natural parasitic enemies.
Bt
transgenic cotton, containing anti-bollworm genes from certain
bacilli, is in large-scale commercial production in China and the
planting area was estimated to top 1.5 million hectares last year,
accounting for about 35 percent of the total area planted in
cotton, according to the Cotton Research Institute under the Chinese Academy
of Agricultural Sciences.
The report says that the diversity index of the insect community in
the Bt cotton fields is lower than conventional cotton fields,
while the pest dominant concentration index is higher.
The balance of the insect community is weaker in Bt cotton fields
than in fields of conventional crops, because some kinds of insects
thrive in the Bt fields and this is more likely to cause outbreaks
of certain pests, said Xue Dayuan, the NIES expert in charge of the
report.
Populations of pests other than the cotton bollworm have increased
in Bt cotton fields and some have even replaced it as primary pests
because the GM plant is slow at controlling those pests, the report
says.
Scientists also verified with lab tests and field monitoring that
the cotton bollworm will develop resistance to the GM cotton and
concluded that Bt cotton will not resist the bollworm after eight
to ten years of continuous cultivation.
New GM organisms and products can benefit agriculture and many
other industries, but people should always beware of the long term
and underlying impacts on the environment, said Zhu
Xinquan,chairman of the Chinese Society of Agro-Biotechnology which
jointly hosted the seminar with the NIES and Greenpeace China.
China is a centre for diversity of several plants such as the soy
bean and faces the problem of how to protect original genes from
imported GM products.
(Xinhua News
Agency June 4, 2002)