Most soyabean farmers in Brazil say they plan to sow legal genetically modified soyabeans for the first time next crop, despite public and private resistance to "Frankenstein" foods. Brazil's lower house of Congress awarded victory to farmers and seed producers this month by giving final approval to a new biosafety law to regulate bioengineered crops and foods as well as legalise the commercial use of transgenic soyabeans.
Farmers and seed producers see commercial gains from using genetically modified crops and thwarting the black market that thrived in southern Brazil in recent years.
"We've been out of the seed market for several years now," Lauri Pavan, production manager at the Cotrel grain co-operative in Erechim, north-west Rio Grande do Sul, the state which accounts for over 95 percent of Brazil's genetically modified soya output. With Brazilian co-operatives and seed producers back selling modified soya seeds, producers expect to raise productivity and lessen their vulnerability to drought, pests and disease. "I guess I lost 60 to 70 percent of my soya crop this year to drought," small producer Ari Blos told Reuters in Tapera, about 170 km (100 miles) south of Erechim.
Producers like Blos in drought-damaged No 3 soya state Rio Grande do Sul bought poor quality modified soyabean seeds on the black market. They say this made them more vulnerable to drought losses.
Genetically modified soya seed producers like Monsoya, Codetec, Embrapa and Pioneer have developed more than 50 varieties of soyabeans specifically suited to various climates and planting needs. They include early maturing strains that would have helped spread the risk of drought this season.
But these firms were forbidden from selling the biotech seeds legally. Genetically modified soya was smuggled into Brazil in the mid-1990s from Argentina, where it is legal, but is now reproduced on local farms and is not suited for much of Brazil.
"Black market GMO seed production leaves much to be desired. It is not an exact science, like it is for the official producers," said Wilson Jose Grolli, a medium-sized producer in the western part of No 2 soya state Parana.
Grolli says he will plant about 50 percent modified soya next crop as a test run. "If it yields well, then I'll probably go 100 percent GMO the following year." The main public opponent of modified soyabeans is the state government of Parana.
Populist Gov. Roberto Requiao pushed a law through the state legislature in 2003 that banned the commercial use of transgenic soya and declared Brazil's main grain port of Paranagua GMO-free.