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Science 29 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 688 - 690
DOI: 10.1126/science.1108972
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Reports

Insect-Resistant GM Rice in Farmers' Fields: Assessing Productivity and Health Effects in China

Jikun Huang,1* Ruifa Hu,1 Scott Rozelle,2 Carl Pray3

Although no country to date has released a major genetically modified (GM) food grain crop, China is on the threshold of commercializing GM rice. This paper studies two of the four GM varieties that are now in farm-level preproduction trials, the last step before commercialization. Farm surveys of randomly selected farm households that are cultivating the insect-resistant GM rice varieties, without the aid of experimental station technicians, demonstrate that when compared with households cultivating non-GM rice, small and poor farm households benefit from adopting GM rice by both higher crop yields and reduced use of pesticides, which also contribute to improved health.

1 Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jia 11, Datun Road, Beijing 100101, China.
2 Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
3 Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Rutgers University, 55 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901–8520, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jkhuang.ccap{at}igsnrr.ac.cn

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)