Plantings of genetically modified (GMO) crops rebounded in 2016 from a decline the previous year as a result of sowings in Brazil and the US.
An annual report released last week stated that biotech crops were planted on a record 185.1 million hectares (457.4 million acres) last year, up three per cent from the 179.7 hectares (444.0 million acres) planted a year earlier, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).
GMO seedings expanded three per cent in the US, the largest producer of biotech crops, and 11 per cent in Brazil, the number two market, ISAAA said.
The two countries represented 66 per cent of total GMO crop seedings globally.
Plantings declined by three percent in Argentina, largely due to reduced soybean seedings as farmers shifted land to corn and sunflower cultivation, the group said.
Low cotton prices and high stocks triggered a 24 per cent drop in biotech seedings in China, where some biotech corn and soybean varieties are approved for import but not for cultivation.
In January, the ABC reported that Labor had scrapped long-held plans to attempt to prevent the growth of genetically modified crops in Western Australia, saying it was too late to stop their use.
The Barnett Government changed regulations to allow the growth of GM canola in 2010, and hundreds of thousands of hectares of it are now grown in WA each year, according to the ABC.
The government then passed laws last year which reduced the state's control over the growth of GM crops, removing the Agriculture Minister's power to ban the use of the technology in WA.
Labor at first claimed that legislative change would not affect its policy, but Opposition Agriculture spokesman Mick Murray said he now acknowledged the growth of GM in WA could not be stopped.
