Get Involved: Sharing the Benefits

CropLife International

From feeding a population expected to reach nine billion by 2050, to protecting our soil, water and natural habitats, the world’s farmers are faced with many challenges. What’s more, they’re under increasing pressure from a changing climate that threatens their ability to grow our food sustainably, while providing for their family and community.

As a result, farmers need innovative solutions to protect lands and livelihoods more than ever before. Providing access to plant science technologies, as well as the knowledge and skills to use them responsibly, could help farmers meet these challenges. Around the globe, better seeds and plant protections made possible by plant science and are already enabling many farmers to reduce their environmental footprint and improve their incomes. For example:

• Around the globe, increased yields from biotech crop usage have allowed 91 million hectares of cropland to remain out in production. That savings represents nearly 15% of the world’s tropical rainforests.
• Farmers in Kenya who use crop protection products to produce disease-free passionfruit improve their income by 400%, allowing them to expand their farms and invest in their community.
• Bt cotton farmers in India earn between $378-$520 more per hectare than growers using conventional cotton varieties, which has led to improved school enrollment, vaccination rates and healthcare access
• In the United states, using herbicides to control weeds in the U.S. reduces soil erosion by an estimated 356 billion pounds each year
• In Brazil, farmers who plant biotech soybeans, cotton and corn varieties have reduced their water consumption by over 16 billion litres since 1996. That’s enough water to supply the population of Brazil’s capital for nearly 2 years.

Every day, more than 2.5 billion farmers worldwide choose to use plant biotechnology and crop protection products to improve their farm, family, community and environment.  Learning from their success and sharing their knowledge will be critical to meeting the future challenges agriculture faces.