This paper summarises the economic and key environmental impacts that crop biotechnology has had on global agriculture. The analysis shows that there have been very significant net economic benefits at the farm level amounting to $18.8 billion in 2012 and $116.6 billion for the seventeen year period 1996-2012 (in nominal terms). These economic gains have been divided roughly 50 percent each to farmers in developed and developing countries. GM technology have also made important contributions to increasing global production levels of the four main crops, having added 122 million tonnes and 230 million tonnes respectively, to the global production of soybeans and maize since the introduction of the technology in the mid-1990s. In terms of key environmental impacts, the adoption of the technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 503 million kg (-8.8 percent) and, as a result, decreased the environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide use on these crops (as measured by the indicator the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ)) by 18.7 percent. The technology has also facilitated a significant reduction in the release of greenhouse gas emissions from this cropping area, which, in 2012, was equivalent to removing 11.88 million cars from the roads.
