Global production of biotech crops including grains, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables is expected to touch to 210 billion dollars by 2015, predicts an Australian study.

Australian economists say this projection has been based on a full adoption with 10 per cent productivity gains in high and middle-income countries, and 20 per cent in low-income countries.

As the population increases in Asia, specially India and China, the countries are bound to adapt biotechnology to feed its growing population and the opposition to biotech food crops like rice is likely to dissipate, according to a report circulated by the US Grains Council (USGC) here.

China, India and the Philippines are pushing research on a few varieties of biotech rice containing the BT gene, which is resistant to corn borer pest, the leading destroyer of corn crops in Asia.

Gurdev Singh Kush, a consultant with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and a World Food Prize recipient, has said ''Some day GM rice will be approved in Asia. As per reports available, the number of rice consumers is likely to increase to 4 billion by 2030 as almost 70 per cent of the rice consumers live in Asia.'' Other biotech rice, containing the Xa21 gene which is resistant to the bacterial blight pest and golden rice rich in Vitamin A, are also being studied and may be released in comming years.

Iran on the other hand has claimed to be the first country to commercialise GM rice in 2004 after nearly 10 years of risk assessment, including field trials.

GM crops are being embraced in developing countries much faster and there is a greater interest in high-yielding, pest-resistant crops that can increase productivity and profits to the farmers, the report added.

China expects the gains to be 1 billion dollars from Bt Cotton and 4 billion dollars from GM rice by 2010.

In India, fours years since biotech cotton was introduced, sales of transgenic seeds has jumped by over 30 times.

After the initial success, Monsanto plans to introduce Bt Cotton with 2 genes, which it claims will be 10 times more effective.

Bollgard II, as it has been named is in its final year of field trials and will be released in the next season.

With GM Cotton and GM Rice ready to be adopted in India and China, it is likely that the gains from the technology will be huge.

It will benefit small farmers in developing countries immensely and will also make them competitive in the world market.

Clive James, Chairman and founder of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) says, 'While the West argues, the developing world is planting biotech crops'.

In 2003, the number of developing countries growing biotech crops was 6, while in 2004, it increased to 11. As per ISAAA, more than 34 per cent of the global biotech crop under 81 million hectares of land last year was grown in developing countries.

The benefits accrued to producers from biotech crops in 2003 in the US were 1.9 billion dollars, while in Argentina, the gains were to the tune of 1.7 billion dollars in 2001-02, the USGC report said.