VANCOUVER – Troy Hobbs had second thoughts shortly after he landed a job in agribusiness.
“I spent the entire 1990s thinking, ‘I’m insane,’ ” he said.
Agriculture was slumping and there was not much optimism in the sector.
But growing demand for food and new ways to meet that demand now has Hobbs excited to report to work every morning.
“About four years ago I decided I made the right choice,” said the corn biofuels strategy lead for Monsanto.
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Seed companies are facing mounting pressure to meet the growing needs of the biofuel sector and an ever-expanding world population. The numbers are staggering.
“We’ve got to produce as much food in the next 50 years as we produced in the last 10,000,” Hobbs said in an interview following his presentation to the annual Canadian Renewable Fuels Summit in Vancouver.
He said seed companies can use advancements in breeding, agronomy and biotechnology to meet that challenge and put an end to the food versus fuel debate.
Monsanto is projecting its corn lines will yield an average of 300 bushels per acre by 2030, up from 137 bu. in 2000. It’s soybean varieties will yield 80 bu. per acre, up from 37 bu. in 2000.
Hobbs said those are average yields. The best corn producers will be harvesting 450 bu. crops by that time, which will be enough to meet the needs of ethanol and supply the world with food.
The U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard has established a cap of 57 billion litres of corn ethanol production.
Hobbs said it will take 23 million acres of corn to provide that much fuel by 2030, but that doesn’t take into account distillers grain produced from the corn ethanol, which replaces the need for corn and soybean meal.
When that is taken into account it would require nine million net acres of corn, which works out to 7,506 litres of ethanol per net acre of corn, which is more than twice what either switchgrass or sugar cane can deliver.
Producers are already seeing the results. Monsanto’s Triple Stack corn is giving them an 8.8 bu. yield advantage over control varieties.
The new hybrids were planted on 32.5 million U.S. acres in 2009, resulting in 7.2 million tonnes of extra corn production.
“That’s the production of South Africa,” Hobbs said.
