THE unprecedented rapid adoption of transgenic crops during the initial five-year period (1996 to 2000) when genetically modified (GM) crops were first adopted, reflects the significant multiple benefits realized by large and small farmers in industrial and developing countries that have grown transgenic crops commercially. Between 1996 and 2000, a total of fifteen countries - 10 industrial and 5 developing - contributed to more than a twenty-five fold increase in the global area of transgenic crops from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 44.2 million hectares in 2000. The accumulated area of transgenic crops planted in the five-year period 1996 to 2000 total 125 million hectares, equivalent to more than 300 million acres.
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