Monsanto has consummated two business deals that it hopes will bring two new genetically modified canola lines to market.
The company has announced partnerships with two smaller biotech firms to commercialize a high yielding GM canola and another that requires less nitrogen to grow.
“It really looks like they could be breakthrough technologies,” said Mike Frank, Monsanto Canada’s western trait and seed lead.
Exclusive licensing agreements have been signed with Targeted Growth Inc. for its yield enhancement gene and Arcadia Biosciences, developers of a nitrogen use efficiency gene.
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Over the past 12 months the Canadian division of the multinational company has invested heavily in the canola industry, beginning with the purchase of Advanta Canada Seeds last September.
Since then, Monsanto has also invested in a new canola seed manufacturing facility and hybrid research centre in Lethbridge, and signed the deals with Targeted Growth and Arcadia Biosciences.
The moves are part of a new corporate strategy necessitated by the rejection of Roundup Ready wheat, a project that was shelved one year ago when groups including the Canadian Wheat Board and the U.S. National Association of Wheat Growers expressed strong reservations about the technology.
“If wheat is a crop that we are not going to invest in, then canola is the second most obvious crop from a Canadian agriculture standpoint,” said Frank.
The two new traits will become the focus of Monsanto’s biotech canola development. Commercialization of the new lines is expected to take six to eight years.
Frank believes Monsanto is blazing a new trail. No other biotech company has publicly stated that it is working on similar yield-enhancing projects with canola.
“As far as we know this would be the first of its kind,” he said.
Canada’s farming community is greeting news of two potential new biotech crops with mixed reaction.
National Farmers Union vice-president Terry Boehm said more licensing and technology use agreements will only increase seed costs and give Monsanto a stranglehold on canola.
“With every piece of the puzzle that they gain control of, that means less choice and less control for ordinary consumers over what they eat and for farmers over what they grow.”
Brad Day, a canola grower from Deloraine, Man., is thrilled by the prospect of a crop that could save him money on fertilizer.
“It would be something that I would be most interested in,” said the vice-president of the Manitoba Canola Growers
Association.
But he’s not convinced the industry needs “skyrocketing yields” as evidenced by a year like this where grain companies will face a significant challenge finding a home for the 10 million tonnes of canola that’s in the Canadian system.
“Don’t get me wrong, everybody would love to have a 50-bushel-to-the-acre crop of canola, but if you’re not getting a decent dollar for it, then you’ve just got more of a devalued commodity,” said Day.
According to five years of field trials conducted in Canada and the United States by Targeted Growth, canola that contained its yield-enhancing gene delivered a double-digit production increase over the control variety.
It had an impact on the size of the seed and the number of seeds produced, said Frank.
Based on preliminary data, he expects the GM canola to deliver a larger incremental yield increase than hybrids brought to the market when they were released.
Field trials conducted by Arcadia have shown that its gene delivered the same yield as the control variety while using two-thirds less nitrogen fertilizer.
Frank said that technology is appealing because the experimental crop also delivered higher yields when the nitrogen was applied at the full recommended rate, so in theory, farmers could choose between saving on costs and boosting production.
Monsanto may also combine the two new traits to create a double whammy, a crop that delivers higher yields while using less nitrogen.
“That’s one of the things that we’re going to be very interested in looking at,” said Frank.
He also said it is very likely the company’s Roundup Ready trait will be incorporated into whatever crop it decides to commercialize.
Monsanto plans to spend the next two years gathering its own data on the two new traits before filing for regulatory approval of the genes. It would be another four to six years after that before the crops were ready for commercialization.
At this point the company intends to seek regulatory approval of both genes. Frank estimated it will cost Monsanto $50-$80 million for each GM project that is taken from inception to commercialization.
