The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) released its annual report on the global status of commercialized biotech crops in 2010. The ISAAA report discusses major developments impacting biotech crop adoption, including this year’s record amount of hectarage dedicated to biotech crops and landmark decisions by Pakistan, Myanmar and Sweden to approve the planting of the crops.

Take a look at the full ISAAA report and charts to learn about the 29 countries that have adopted biotech crops since they were first planted 15 years ago and the growth of agricultural biotechnology in the United States and worldwide.

Some highlights from the 2010 ISAAA report include:

• Biotech crops occupy about 10% or 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) of total global cropland- up significantly from 7% or 134 million hectares (331 million acres) in 2009.
• The number of countries planting biotech crops increased to 29, up from 25 in 2009, with for the first time two struggling economies Pakistan and Myanmar planting biotech cotton to improve food security, and the first Scandinavian adopter Sweden planting a high-quality biotech starch potato.
• The United States remained by far the largest grower of biotech crops, with 66.8 million hectares (165 million acres) planted in 2010, up 4 percent from 2009.
• Developing countries increased their share of global biotech crops to almost 48% in 2010, and are expected to exceed developed countries in the future.
• The use of genetically modified seeds grew the fastest in Brazil, with a 4 million hectare increase from 2009.
• Biotech soybean continued to be the dominant crop in 2010, occupying 73.3 million hectares or 50% of global biotech area, followed by biotech maize at 31%, biotech cotton at 14%, and biotech canola with 5% of the global biotech crop area.
• Since 1996, a total of 59 countries have granted regulatory approvals for biotech crops for import for food and feed use and for release into the environment.
• About 12 countries are expected to adopt biotech crops for the first time between 2011 and 2015, bringing the total number of countries adopting biotech crops to approximately 40 in 2015.