Early adoption of GM technology in arable crops would bring clear farm level and environmental benefits for Poland according to a new report published today.

The report formally published in the journal Biotechnologica, shows that the application and use of the GM agronomic traits of herbicide tolerance to oilseed rape, sugar beet and maize, and insect (Bt) resistance in maize offers Poland both economic and environmental benefits.

According to Graham Brookes, one of the authors of the report , 'Polish arable farmers have the potential to gain more from early adoption of GM technology than their EU 15 counterparts because they are starting from a lower average level of technical efficiency and therefore they will derive greater productivity gains. The GM technology offers scope for accelerating the process of 'productivity catch up' post EU accession, enabling Polish producers to compete more effectively, and earlier than they might otherwise have been capable of, if they did not use GM technology'.

Key findings of the research forecast that adoption of GM technology would annually result in:

1. Between a +10% and +19% increase in output for crops like oilseed rape (of value for export and as a raw material for bio-fuels) and sugar beet (of value for export without subsidy or for use in non food sectors like bio-ethanol);

2. An increase in annual added value for Polish production of the three crops of between +¤55 million and +¤116 million;

3. An increase in farm (gross margin) income of between ¤67 million and ¤123 million.

4. The volume of herbicides applied would fall by between a third and a half and result in a net reduction in the toxicity level of products applied. Using a measure of mammalian toxicity, the total level of doses applied would fall by between 38% and 67%;

5. Greater opportunity to move to low tillage cultivation methods which reduce soil disruption, erosion and the release of carbon dioxide from ploughing and hence make a positive contribution to reducing the impact of global warming.

- Graham Brookes, Tel: +44 (0)1303 840958; E-mail: graham.brookes@brookeswest.co.uk.