New GM cotton type to boost GM crop in Australia
Date: 26-Sep-02
Country: AUSTRALIA
The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator approved the introduction of a new GM variety, Bollgard II, by Monsanto Australia, the local unit of U.S.-based farm chemical giant Monsanto Ltd .
This was the first approval in the world, with Bolgard II still a month or so away from approval in the United States, Roger Boyce, Monsanto Australia's business manager, told Reuters.
"Absolutely, very much so," Boyce said when asked if this was a major breakthrough for Monsanto.
Bollgard II contains two bacterial genes which makes proteins deadly to the heliothis caterpillar, a major cotton pest.
The two-gene variety would be more effective in controlling insects than Monsanto's existing one-gene Ingard GM variety, requiring less use of chemical insecticides, he said.
It would also allow a much greater area to be planted with GM cotton because the two-gene variety slowed insect resistance.
The new variety was approved for use in latitudes south of 22 degrees South, covering the southern two-thirds of Australia and including all the established commercial cotton fields of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) states.
PLANTING STARTS
With Australia's cotton planting season starting around the middle of September, some Bolgard II would already be in the ground for the 2002/03 crop already, Boyce said this week.
About 5,000 hectares of Bolgard II would be sold this season, in a 300,000 ha or so total crop. This would rise to 50,000 ha next year when Bolgard II and Ingard would both be sold.
In 2004 Ingard would be removed, leaving Bolgard II expected to capture about half Australia's cotton crop, Boyce said.
Use of Monsanto's Ingard cotton is presently restricted to 30 percent of Australia's cotton growing area, or around 120,000 ha in 2001/02, mainly for insect resistance management.
Use of Bolgard II is not capped and could lead to at least a doubling of Australia's GM crops, officials and Monsanto said.
"I have heard people in the industry comment anything from 70-80 percent is possible," Monsanto spokesman Brian Arnst said.
Gene Technology Regulator Sue Meek said Bolgard II had not been approved for use in northern Australia because of uncertainty about whether the variety could become a pesticide-resistant super weed in these areas.
This was not seen as a setback, Arnst said.
Commercial cotton is not presently grown north of 22 degrees, although trials are underway at the Ord River project in northeast Western Australia. Monsanto had applied for a license to grow commercial GM cotton at Katherine, south of Darwin in the Northern Territory, but the application was rejected. But the Cotton Research Centre, working on the viability of cotton production in northern Australia, has been authorised to plant up to 800 ha of Bolgard II in northern trials.
This was important for later expansion, Arnst said.
