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Impact of insect-resistant GM rice on pesticide use and farmers’ health in China

Science China Life Sciences volume 58, pages466–471(2015)Cite this article

Abstract

The economic benefits of insect-resistant genetically modified (GM) crops have been well documented, but the impact of such crops and the consequent reduction in pesticide use on farmers’ health remains largely unknown. Through the analysis of the data collected from the physical examination from farmers in China, we show that GM rice significantly reduces pesticide use and the resultant not only visible but also invisible adverse effects on farmers’ neurological, hematological, and electrolyte system. Hence, the commercialization of GM rice is expected to improve the health of farmers in developing countries, where pesticide application is necessary to mitigate crop loss.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    JiKun Huang, HuaiJu Liu & ZhuRong Huang

  2. School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    RuiFa Hu

  3. China Economics and Management Academy, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, China

    FangBin Qiao

  4. Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China

    YanHong Yin

Authors
  1. JiKun Huang
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  2. RuiFa Hu
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  3. FangBin Qiao
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  4. YanHong Yin
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  5. HuaiJu Liu
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  6. ZhuRong Huang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to JiKun Huang or FangBin Qiao.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Huang, J., Hu, R., Qiao, F. et al. Impact of insect-resistant GM rice on pesticide use and farmers’ health in China. Sci. China Life Sci. 58, 466–471 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-014-4768-1

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Keywords

  • pesticide use
  • farmers
  • health
  • genetically modified rice
  • insect-resistance