WASHINGTON (AP) -- Farmers intend to plant a record 75 million acres of soybeans this year, up 1 percent from 1999, and also are increasing their corn, cotton and sugar acreage despite a continuing slump in prices, the government said today.
This year's corn acreage is estimated at 77.9 million acres, also up 1 percent from 1999, based on Agriculture Department surveys of farmers.
Cotton plantings are expected to total 15.6 million acres, an increase of 5 percent from last year, the second-largest acreage since 1962. Sugarbeet acreage is expected to rise by 1 percent to 1.6 million.
Wheat acreage is expected to total 61.7 million acres, down 2 percent from 1999.
Soybeans have become increasingly popular with farmers in recent years because of federal price supports that make the crop more profitable than corn and other commodities, according to analysts.
The USDA surveys indicate that farmers are planning to cut back on plantings of a genetically engineered variety of corn that is toxic to an insect pest, the European corn borer. Farmers in major corn-producing states indicated that they will plant 19 percent of their acreage to the biotech variety this year, down from 25 percent in 1999.
Analysts had expected the reduction because of resistance to the corn in overseas markets and a decline in borer populations.
There are concerns the engineered corn could be toxic to monarch butterflies and that corn borers could develop resistance to it.:
