Genetically modified food in China is unlikely to be commercially available for large-scale planting for at least three to five years, said a top agriculture expert. “Given the constraints on natural resources in China, particularly land and water, the government will definitely need transgenic technology to raise food production in the long term” Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Chinese Agriculture Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily in an exclusive interview. [...] Still, some experts take a more guarded view of GM crops.

Jing Fei, a seed expert at Bohai University in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, said there was no need for the country to approve the commercialization of GM food over the next few years.