Research focuses on drought resistance, more efficient fertilizer use

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press

Finding new ways to relieve crop stress is an overarching goal that seed companies are competing to achieve, according to experts.

Tolerance to herbicides and insects has been a mainstay of the seed industry in recent years, but other stress factors can be reduced to improve yields.

Drought is a common foe in agriculture around the world, so seed researchers have been looking to help plants use water more efficiently and bounce back from periods of deprivation more readily.

It has taken longer for researchers to find solutions to the problem because water shortages hurt crops in several ways, said Tracy Mader, head of product marketing for Syngenta.

"Water and heat stress is much more complex than insect or herbicide tolerance," Mader said. "You have more variables for the scientists to manage."

Syngenta has been identifying genes that allow plants to deal with water stress and has developed traits that allow crops to recover 25 percent of the lost yield caused by drought.

The company is working on multiple fronts, with conventionally bred crops expected to be released on a trial basis in 2011.

Transgenic crops that resist water stress are also in the pipeline, though they won't become commercially available for several years, Mader said.

Drought tolerance is being pursued across the seed industry, and will likely be one of the newest innovations to hit the seed market, said Andy LaVigne, president and CEO of the American Seed Trade Association.

Developing crops resilient to salty soils is another promising area of research, particularly for farmers in developing countries, LaVigne said.

Surging fertilizer prices cause stress for farmers, while insufficient levels of nitrogen are a stress for plants.

Seed companies are trying to resolve that dilemma by developing traits that allow plants to get more out of that expensive input, said Sharon Bomer, executive vice president of food and agriculture for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

"The plant is able to use nitrogen in the soil more efficiently," permitting the farmer to cut back on the fertilizer without denting yield, said Bomer, noting that it may take 10 years for such traits to be commercialized.

Many major advances will probably first appear in corn, since it's a staple crop and a lot of research has been devoted to understanding its genetic makeup, LaVigne said.

"The industry as a whole knows the most about the corn genome," he said, adding that progress is expected to follow in soybeans, oilseeds, wheat and other crops.

Cibus, a company that uses non-transgenic technology to alter crop genes, has focused on crops that haven't commanded as much attention from the major seed developers, said Peter Beetham, senior vice president of research at the firm.

Canola, potatoes and wheat are among the crops Cibus is targeting to develop traits for disease resistance, drought tolerance, herbicide resistance and other beneficial traits, Beetham said.

The company has also looked into the potential to develop alfalfa that's easier for livestock to digest. A similar approach could be used to generate biofuel crops that require less energy to process.

"Environmentally, that's a huge area of importance," he said.

Marketplace acceptance has been an issue with transgenic crops, particularly if they're used for food, said Mike Gilbert, vice president of plant breeding and development at Bayer CropScience.

Aside from corn and soybeans, the company is investing in cotton, canola, rice and vegetable research. The company is pursuing both transgenic and conventional technologies to increase crop yields, he said.

"It's going to take time to see where these technologies fit best and where they make the most impact," Gilbert said.