05.12.2008
Monsanto claims that Roundup Ready 2 Yield produces a 7-11% superior yield than the original Roundup Ready, which ought to be rather surprising since herbicide resistance is not a yield trait. But the answer is in fact simple: Roundup Ready 2 Yield is an admission that the original Roundup Ready had a major yield drag, one of several unanticipated consequences of this insertion event.
04.12.2008
Monsanto Company announced that it has completed its proposed acquisition of Aly Participacoes Ltda., which operates the sugarcane breeding and technology companies, CanaVialis S.A. and Alellyx S.A., both of which are based in Brazil. Monsanto’s $290 million (R$616 million) acquisition of Aly Participacoes Ltda. from Votorantim Novos Negocios Ltda. and its sister company, Votorantim Industrial S.A., was consummated with existing excess cash.
03.12.2008
Arcadia Biosciences Inc. has received a $3.6 million grant to develop rice and wheat in India that use less fertilizer and water. The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded the three-year grant, according to a news release. Arcadia will work with Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co. Ltd. of India to develop and implement the program. Davis-based Arcadia signed an agreement with MAHYCO in April to commercialize new crop varieties in India and South Asia.
01.12.2008
The March price swing had already forced the U.S. unit of Switzerland’s Paul Reinhart AG, one of the world’s largest and oldest cotton merchants, to file for bankruptcy protection. Part of cotton’s problem is that corn and soybeans, despite a recent drop in prices, are benefiting from new demand from developing nations and biofuels makers. Meanwhile, cotton prices are being held down by rising yields resulting from the spread of genetically modified cotton seeds. U.S. subsidies are also under attack from overseas trade officials, who say they foster overproduction.
27.11.2008
”Access to GM cotton crops has made a significant contribution to the cotton industry’s sustainable management of insect pests and weeds, and to the environment,” Ms Schneider says. ”Reduced application and expenditure on insecticides has increased the profitability and ease of growing cotton and improved community perception of the industry.
27.11.2008
The agricultural biotechnology business could hardly have had a better friend than George W. Bush. [...] But there are clues President-elect Barack Obama could be an ally of the industry, too, especially in the effort to put biotech crops into widespread use in Africa. These hints come from both statements of policy and the type of people from whom he’s taking advice.
26.11.2008
The agricultural biotechnology business could hardly have had a better friend than George W. Bush. But there are clues President-elect Barack Obama could be an ally of the industry, too, especially in the effort to put biotech crops into widespread use in Africa. These hints come from both statements of policy and the type of people from whom he's taking advice.
26.11.2008
”Waterproof’ versions of popular varieties of rice, which can withstand 2 weeks of complete submergence, have passed tests in farmers’ fields with flying colors. Several of these varieties are now close to official release by national and state seed certification agencies in Bangladesh and India, where farmers suffer major crop losses because of flooding of up to 4 million tons of rice per year. This is enough rice to feed 30 million people.
26.11.2008
Though many of the world’s acidic soils have aluminum levels that are toxic to food plants, subsistence farmers often depend on these soils to survive. ARS plant physiologist Leon Kochian has been a part of a multinational effort to find a gene in sorghum - a key food crop in Africa - to protect it against aluminum toxicity in acidic soils.
26.11.2008
After years of massive crop losses caused by a devastating virus, farmers are harvesting healthy cassava - one of Africa’s principal foodstuffs - throughout the Great Lakes region, FAO announced today, hailing the achievement as a milestone in its ever stronger partnership with the European Union. By the last planting season, virus-free cassava planting material had been distributed to some 330 000 smallholders in countries struck by the virus - Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The improved crop now benefits a total of some 1.65 million people.