St. Louis, Missouri
January 7, 2009
As farmers around the world search
for innovative new technologies to help them produce more with
fewer resources, Monsanto
Company announced today that it is a major step closer to
delivering the world's first-ever drought-tolerant corn product
to farmers.
In the fourth-annual update of its Research and Development
(R&D) pipeline, the world's leading agriculture company
announced that its first- generation drought-tolerant corn has
moved to the fourth -- and final -- phase before an anticipated
market launch early next decade. The company also announced that
it has submitted the product to the Food & Drug Administration
(FDA) for regulatory clearance.
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. Field trials for drought-tolerant corn conducted
last year in the Western Great Plains have met or exceeded the 6
percent to 10 percent target yield enhancement -- about 7 to 10
bushels per acre -- over the average yield of 70-130 bushels per
acre in some of the key drought-prone areas in the United
States.
Steve Padgette, biotechnology lead for Monsanto, noted that this
is the fastest a product has advanced from one phase into
another. "In the almost 25 years I have been with Monsanto, the
advancement of our drought-tolerant corn product into Phase 4 is
one of our most significant R&D milestones, making this one of
the most exciting times ever for our R&D pipeline," Padgette
said. "We are now intensively selecting the best trait-germplasm
combinations to deliver excellent drought-stress performance,
and value, to our customers upon launch. This product and other
yield improvements we are developing will reset the bar for
on-farm productivity."
Monsanto's corn product represents the first in a series of
drought-tolerant and higher-yielding crop technologies which the
company is poised to offer farmers over the next decade. Experts
have noted that drought-tolerant crop technologies represent one
potential tool for ensuring greater sustainability and
production within agriculture. Products under development by
Monsanto are designed to enable farmers to produce more on each
acre of farmland while minimizing the input of energy and
resources such as water.
Drought-tolerant corn technology is just one of the products
currently under development as part of Monsanto's R&D and
commercialization collaboration in plant biotechnology with
German-based BASF. The two companies are jointly contributing
$1.5 billion over the life of the collaboration, which is aimed
at developing higher-yielding crops and crops more tolerant to
adverse environmental conditions such as drought.
"This product is the first result of
BASF and
Monsanto's plant biotech collaboration. Our joint product
pipeline has many high performing drought tolerant genes, which
make us confident that we can live up to our commitment of
delivering successive generations of ever more drought-tolerant
crops," said Hans Kast, President and Chief Executive Officer of
BASF Plant Science.
Higher-yielding -- or Intrinsic Yield -- soybean technology,
being developed by the companies, which is expected to enable
soybean farmers to produce more bushels out of each acre, also
moved another step closer to farm fields.
The product, which promises higher yields through the insertion
of a key gene, moved into Phase 3 and will now undergo expanded
field trials, regulatory studies and trait integration into
elite soybean germplasm. Once commercially available, the
higher-yielding soybeans will build upon the company's Roundup
Ready 2 Yield platform and provide farmers with an additional
boost to the incremental yield advantage from that product-line.
Intrinsic Yield soybeans are also part of Monsanto's R&D and
commercialization collaboration in plant biotechnology with
German-based BASF.
Other key crop projects advance, new crop technologies added
Monsanto also updated the status of other corn, cotton and
soybean products in its R&D pipeline:
- SmartStax corn -
SmartStax contains multiple different modes of action, for
insect-resistance management, is more effective against
above- and below-ground insects, and offers the company's
most comprehensive weed-control system. The product moved to
Phase 4, the final step prior to the product's anticipated
2010 commercial launch. In June 2008, Monsanto submitted a
request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set
refuge requirements for SmartStax at 5 percent in the
northern Corn Belt and 20 percent in southern states where
cotton is planted, which are lower than those for existing
technologies. Monsanto noted that the EPA has already
granted reduced refuge requirements for the product's
second-generation YieldGard corn borer technology, which is
a key step in the process for receiving approval for
SmartStax refuge reduction.
- Dicamba- and
Glufosinate-tolerant cotton - As the first three-way
stack of herbicide-tolerant technologies in the pipeline,
dicamba-tolerant cotton moved to Phase 2. It adds two new
modes of action -- Dicamba and Glufosinate tolerance -- to
the Roundup Ready Flex system, and is expected to provide
farmers with the greatest flexibility in weed management and
the most effective weed-control system available.
Two projects were added to
Monsanto's R&D pipeline this year, including:
- Second-generation,
insect-protected Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans -
This second-generation insect-control product is
tailored to South American farmers' needs and includes
an additional mode of action for potential reduced
refuge requirements. This project is currently in Phase
1.
- Roundup Ready,
insect-protected sugarcane - Now in the Proof-of-
Concept Phase, this Phase 1 project will leverage
Monsanto's recent investment in sugarcane.
Helping farmers increase yield,
meet the demands of a growing population
As the world's population grows, so are the demands on
agriculture and the need to get more out of each acre. Monsanto
is committed to help farmers boost on-farm productivity through
established and new advancements in plant breeding and
biotechnology.
In June 2008, Monsanto announced an ambitious plan to double
yields in its three core crops -- corn, cotton and soybeans --
by 2030 compared to a base year of 2000 -- as part of a
three-point pledge called the Sustainable Yield Initiative. The
company also committed to conserving more of the world's
precious natural resources by reducing by a third, the aggregate
amount of key inputs such as water, land and energy, required to
produce each unit. Monsanto plans to do this by providing
choices for modern agricultural technology to its stakeholders
and has committed to helping resource-poor farm families.
The company's investment in breeding and biotechnology research
is key to meeting these commitments. Monsanto invests more than
$2.6 million per day on leading agricultural research.
Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of
technology-based solutions and agricultural products that
improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains
focused on enabling both small-holder and large- scale farmers
to produce more from their land while conserving more of our
world's natural resources such as water and energy.
Roundup Ready, Roundup Ready 2 Yield and SmartStax are
trademarks of Monsanto Company and its wholly-owned
subsidiaries. |
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