Monsanto says drought-tolerant corn ready for 2010

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Monsanto says drought-tolerant corn ready for 2010Posted

9 hours 16 minutes ago

Agrichemical giant Monsanto has hailed a significant step in creating a

drought-tolerant corn to be available as early as 2010, in a move decried

as " misleading " by a public health watchdog.

The genetically modified (GM) corn, which Monsanto says will " reset

the bar " in farming productivity, has moved to the fourth and final

stage of development and could reach commercial usage within two years,

the company said.

" Drought-tolerant corn is designed to provide farmers yield

stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating the

effects of drought - or water stress - within a corn plant, "

Monsanto said in a statement.

By some accounts, however, the corn's real-world benefits are

negligible.

" With GM crops there's a tremendous amount of hype and

misinformation, " said Bill Freese, a science analyst at the

Washington-based Centre for Food Safety, an environmental and public

health organisation.

The drought-tolerant corn is the first in a series of crops to be

released over the next decade that aim to enable " farmers to produce

more on each acre of farmland while minimising the input of energy and

resources such as water, " Monsanto said.

But the seed manipulation needed to create drought-tolerance comes at a

huge cost, according to Mr Freese.

" They're finding the corn that does a little bit better under

drought conditions does a lot worse than other varieties when rainfall is

adequate, " he said.

As such, he said, the drought-tolerant crop is " trading off yield

under good conditions for marginal improvement under drought conditions.

And that's a huge issue they haven't come near to

overcoming. "

But Michael Wach, head of Science and Regulatory Affairs at the

Biotechnology Industry Organisation, argued it would be untenable for a

company to develop a GM crop for commercial use that only performs under

a narrow set of circumstances.

" As a product nears final commercialism the developer tests that

product under a wide variety of climatic circumstances and wide variety

of locations, over years, so they can tell the grower, look, it's going

to grow well for you in your area, " he said.

Monsanto said trials of its corn conducted last year in the drought-prone

American midwest " met or exceeded the six per cent to 10 per cent

target yield enhancement. "

" This product and other yield improvements we are developing will

reset the bar for on-farm productivity, " said Monsanto biotechnology

chief Steve Padgette.

- AFP

 

 

 

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