KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Syngenta AG is negotiating with several American universities for help in work on a genetically modified wheat designed to fight fusarium, a fungal disease that costs farmers millions of dollars a year.
The GM wheat, Syngenta’s first foray into that controversial arena, is resistant to fusarium head blight.
The Basel, Switzerland-based Syngenta has been keeping its research work quiet, but is now moving into a new phase that could lead to a product on the market as early as 2007, said John Bloomer, Syngenta’s global head of cereal seeds and traits.
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“There is a natural pull for this technology,” Bloomer said.
Syngenta has recently started negotiations with North Dakota State University, as well as universities in South Dakota and Minnesota. The company sees fusarium as a global problem but expects to launch its fusarium-resistant wheat in the United States first, said Bloomer. Field trials are under way in the U.S., United Kingdom, Argentina and Canada.
“We’ve got a gene that has an effect and we’re looking at how it works in the field,” said Bloomer. “We’re doing more and more field trials. We still have a few years of technical work to do.”
Bloomer said many U.S. and Canadian spring wheat areas suffer from cool moist conditions that foster fusarium problems. Northern soft red winter markets are also affected.
Bruce Freitag, president of North Dakota Grain Growers, said Syngenta’s GM wheat could help overcome opposition.
“There is more interest in a scab (fusarium)-resistant wheat than in herbicide resistant,” Freitag said.
“It is something that a lot of producers have problems with and something that could have a strong economic benefit. Even importing companies that have an aversion to GM wheat may take a second look if they can get a better quality wheat.”
Around the world, fusarium cuts into wheat yield and quality in areas of Europe, Latin America, China and parts of Australia, Bloomer said.
Finding an answer to that problem in a scab-resistant wheat would be a significant accomplishment, he said, citing research that showed U.S. farmers have suffered $3 billion US in economic losses due to fusarium since 1990.
Because fusarium reduces wheat quality and yield, the benefits could move up the food chain to millers and bakers, Bloomer said.
Farmers appear eager to embrace the new wheat.
A fusarium-resistant wheat “has a lot of market appeal,” said Larry Lee, a spring wheat and durum grower in North Dakota.
“It would improve quality of wheat and have some huge benefits for the end users.”
Syngenta competitor Monsanto Co. has been developing a genetically modified wheat of its own, one that is resistant to glyphosate herbicide – like its own Roundup – which can improve weed control for farmers.
Foreign wheat buyers have expressed opposition to genetically modified wheat, saying consumers don’t want it and they fear it will become mixed with traditional wheat.
