The ongoing commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops continues to enhance global grain yields, improve crop quality, and reduce pesticide usage. These technological advancements have effectively propelled agricultural production systems toward sustainable transformation. Specifically, GM crops address core challenges such as pest infestations, weed proliferation, and arable land constraints, emerging as a pivotal new productive force in agriculture. This study systematically examines the global spatial distribution patterns of GM crops in 2024 and provides an indepth analysis of the driving forces and evolving regional trends, offering critical informational support and strategic guidance for innovation in agricultural science and technology. In 2024, the global GM crop cultivation area reached 209.8 million hectares, a 1.7% year-on-year increase. GM Glycine max (soybean) and Zea mays (maize) dominated the landscape, accounting for 50.0 and 32.5% of the total area, respectively. Among them, maize with stacked traits of insect resistance and herbicide tolerance accounts for 92.5% of GM maize. The share of cultivation in developing countries expanded substantially, with Brazil and Vietnam emerging as regional growth drivers. Policy support and the diffusion of advanced technologies were identified as core driving forces. Concurrently, applications of gene-editing technology accelerated, and several countries approved novel tr aits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance, marking substantial progress in the commercialization of next-generation GM crops. This research provides multidimensional insights and strategic guidance to support global agricultural biotechnology development, promoting the transition of biotechnology breeding into the ‘4.0 era’.

Multiple cropping is a widely adopted land management strategy to improve agricultural productivity.  However, the environmental costs and agricultural sustainability of various rice cropping system remains unclear, particularly in tropical regions.  Here, we evaluated the productivity, economic benefits, and environmental sustainability of contrasting rotations including pepper-rice-rice, cowpea-rice-rice, and bitter gourd-rice-rice as triple cropping, and pepper-single rice , cowpea-single rice, bitter gourd-single rice, and fallow-rice-rice as double cropping.  The economic benefits of bitter gourd-single rice, and cowpea-single rice was higher than bitter gourd-rice-rice, and cowpea-rice-rice by 34.2%and 4.6%, respectively.  The environmental footprint indexes of the bitter gourd-rice-rice based on unit farmland area and economic benefit was 17.1-40.7% lower than bitter gourd-single rice. Similarly, the environmental footprint index of per area and per economic of cowpea-single rice decreased compared to cowpea-rice-rice by 25.6 and 21.3%, respectively.  These results indicate that reducing cropping intensity leads to lower environmental costs and higher economic benefits.  In addition, nitrogen and phosphorus footprints were found to be the dominant contributors to the overall environmental costs.  Meanwhile, optimizing fertilization and strategically arranging crop growth period are the key factors in improving the sustainability and productivity of the rotation systems.  In conclusion, bitter gourd-single rice and cowpea-single rice rotations are recommended as optimal cropping systems in tropical regions to reduce environmental impacts while maintaining high yields and economic benefits.