Canadian farmers who plant Bt corn are under closer scrutiny this summer to ensure that the crops they plant contain the recommended 20 percent of non-Bt or refuge corn plants.
Last month, Crop Life Canada unveiled a one-year pilot program aimed at assessing Bt corn growers’ compliance with refuge planting requirements.
Through the program, 100 Bt corn growers in Ontario and 50 in Quebec will be notified that an auditor will visit their farms during the 2010 growing season.
The auditors will review invoice data, interview the farmers and determine if an appropriate refuge has been planted.
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Farmers that haven’t planted the required refuge will get a visit from representatives of the company or companies that developed the corn seed.
Those reps will stress the importance of proper Bt corn management and will encourage farmers to follow proper refuge planting requirements in 2011.
Refuge crops have been identified as a critical management tool in ensuring that insects do not develop tolerance to pest resistant crops such as Bt corn or midge resistant wheat.
By maintaining a refuge crop, mutant insects that have developed genetic resistance to Bt proteins are less likely to mate with other resistant insects.
As a result, the emergence of widespread resistance in an insect population would be less likely.
Janice Tranberg, an official with Crop Life Canada, said Canadian Food Inspection Agency raised concerns about resistant insect populations and asked Crop Life Canada to come up with a plan to ensure crops such as Bt corn remain viable.
Crop Life developed a three-pronged program called the Insect Resistance Management Implementation Assurance Program.
A permanent on-farm assessment program will be launched in 2011.
“We know there are new (insect resistant) technologies coming up and if we can’t safely manage the technologies that we already have, the CFIA has told us that there might be repercussions.”
When farmers buy Bt corn seed, they agree to plant 20 percent of their crop to refuge or non-Bt corn varieties but the corn seed industry is aware that many farmers do not honour that part of their contracts.
A recent study conducted by the Canadian Corn Pest Coalition suggested that 61 percent of farmers growing Bt corn planted the recommended refuge area in 2009.
Four years earlier in 2005, compliance rates were estimated at around 80 percent.
