• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Nov. 17 The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has permitted Monsanto India Ltd to conduct limited field trials of corn hybrids that are genetically modified (GM) to confer resistance to the corn borer insect pest and application of its ‘Roundup’ herbicide, according to highly placed sources.

The sources said the clearance for ‘bio-safety research level-1 field trials under confined conditions’ of the GM corn (maize) hybrids was granted at GEAC’s meeting last week.

“It basically allows the company to carry out bio-safety trials in one-acre plots at select State Agricultural University-owned farms. These will be followed by level-2 trials on bigger 2.5-acre plots, which would then set the stage for largescale trials on farmers’ fields. It will probably take 3-4 years for the product to be finally released for commercial cultivation”, they added.

Monsanto’s GM corn hybrids basically contain a three-gene stacked combination. Two of these genes (cry1A.105 and cry2Ab2), derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (a common soil bacterium) and based on a proprietary ‘89034 event’, code for proteins that act against to a broad spectrum of lepidopteran insect pests. These include the European corn borer, Asian corn borer and sugarcane borer.

The third gene (‘NK603 event’) allows the corn hybrids to be Roundup-ready’, i.e. tolerant to application of glyphosate, the active ingredient in ‘Roundup’ herbicide. Monsanto is now selling its ‘Roundup’ herbicide formulations in the country mainly for pre-emergent use, i.e. prior to the plant’s vegetative growth stage.

While spraying glyphosate on ordinary corn destroys the crop along with the weeds (as the chemical cannot distinguish between the two), the corn that is genetically engineered to resist ‘Roundup’ confines the potency to just the weeds, making it amenable to post-emergent applications as well.

During 2007-08, Monsanto India reported a profit after tax of Rs 54.30 crore (excluding profits from divesture of product lines) on net sales of Rs 363.54 crore. The bulk of the company’s sales come from two businesses – hybrid corn seed and ‘Roundup’ herbicides. Over the last couple of years, Monsanto has sold all its other herbicide product businesses, including butachlor and alachlor (‘Machete’, ‘Fastmix’ and ‘Lasso’ brands) and sulfosulfuron (‘Leader’).

“Through GM corn, the company would be looking to boost sales of its seeds as well as herbicide formulations. With farm labour becoming increasingly costly as well as unavailability, there is obviously potential for replacing manual weeding with herbicides, the marketing for which is growing annually by 15-20 per cent,” the sources pointed out.

More Stories on : Bio-tech & Genetics | Foodgrains

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line