Résumé traduit Translated abstract
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As the first transgenic crops date form 1996, the paper tackles an assessment of them at the agro-economic level. It takes the case of glyphosate-tolerant soybean, which is currently the most widespread transgenic crop in the world as well as in the United States, where it is studied here. Our work is more particularly based on the acquisition, the critical examination and the analysis of the available data on the results of the first production years. We sought to compare the transgenic crops with the conventional ones as regards the inputs used, the yields, the margins, the farming constraints and/or easiness, certain environmental aspects and the various advantages and disadvantages. The analysis reveals a great variability in the results according to local conditions, as well as an evolution in time. For the American farmers who use it, the interest of transgenic soybean does not appear to be based only on accounting considerations about the costs or the margin. Indeed, in spite of the extra cost of the seeds, the margin is quite often improved a little by less expenses on herbicide treatments and/or a slightly higher yield, but other factors come into play. So, one should also take into account the interactions between farm activities and productions within the farms, the interactions between techniques, the inter-annual variations... In addition, the analysis must take into account the dynamics of the overall evolution, here for example the decrease in soybean prices and in the price of the other herbicides, change in some other techniques and the general evolution of the farms and of the context. The fast growth of transgenic soybean comes in particular from the fact that it allows an easier and more flexible weed control (at least in the short run). This work, funded by the AIP during one year, has continued and must still continue because of the time needed to gather the numerous essential data for a sufficiently thorough analysis. This continuation is all the more necessary as the situation of the transgenic crops is evolving with various ongoing processes: problems of acceptability influencing the outlets for export, continuation of the controversy on this topic, prospects of the applications of genomics, etc.
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