GMO and refuge seed in a bag gets federal nod

Monday, June 13, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Monsanto will begin selling its stacked trait corn seed with the required refuge in the same bag starting this fall for planting in 2012.

Michael Nailor, Monsanto’s trait marketing lead, says the company received approval Thursday from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for its Genuity SmartStax RIB Complete corn seed.

Farmers planting Bt corn are required to plant a non-Bt refuge area to prevent insects from developing resistance to the Bt proteins. Nailor says farmers using Genuity SmartStax RIB Complete won’t have to buy separate corn seed and plant a separate, structured refuge. The bag contains 95 per cent Genuity SmartStax seeds and five per cent non-traited seed. Farmers would just plant the corn and not have to worry about a refuge because it’s already included.

The refuge will be randomly located in the field “which makes it great because now a farmer doesn’t have to stop and plant a separate refuge and do a lot of stopping and starting,” Nailor says, noting the product will be available in Ontario and Quebec.

The Genuity SmartStax corn seed, developed in collaboration with Dow AgroSciences and introduced in time for the 2010 planting season, offers protection against a number of above ground pests including corn borer, fall armyworm and western bean cutworm. Below ground it has protection for corn rootworm.

Nailor says farmers want to be compliant with government-mandated refuge rules and have been asking for this product for years. BF