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Agricultural Biotechnology Helping Increase Farm Yields

Agricultural biotechnology is contributing to increased crop yields in the United States and around the world. In the face of higher food costs and greater global demand for commodities such as corn and soybeans, American farmers have embraced technologies that are helping them grow more food.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the average acre of corn in the United States produced 113.5 bushels in 1995, the last year before the introduction of biotech corn. By 2007, corn production had risen to 151.1 bushels per acre. This means that American farmers grew 33.0% more corn last year than they did just 12 years ago. This increase in yield, combined with an increase in planted acres from 71.4 million in 1995 to 93.6 million in 2007, resulted in a total rise in corn production in the United States from 7.4 million bushels to 13.0 million bushels over the same period.

U.S. soybean farmers have also enjoyed an increase in yield – from 35.2 bushels per acre in 1995, to 41.2 bushels per acre in 2007.