Drought Tolerant Corn

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Drought Tolerant Corn

Minimizing drought stress to help improve yield

Water is one of the most important inputs to agriculture. Even a slight water deficit can cause great stress on a crop, significantly lowering yield. Every acre of corn faces some degree of water stress at some point in the growing season. In many areas of the world, water is the biggest limiting factor in agriculture production. Click here for more about the impact of drought on agriculture.

For this reason, growers in both developed and developing countries eagerly anticipate drought-tolerant crops. These crops will remove some of the uncertainty of farming by reducing some drought-induced yield losses in years when moisture is limited. The result will be greater yield consistency with a higher average yield under water-deficit conditions.

Drought Tolerant Corn

Drought tolerant corn, one of the yield and stress projects currently in Monsanto’s R&D product pipeline and included in Monsanto’s R&D collaboration with BASF, applies technology that has consistently delivered yield improvements compared with controls under water-stressed conditions. Drought tolerance will become increasingly critical as population pressure and climate change combine to make water an increasingly scarce resource in many parts of the world.

First-generation drought tolerance is targeted to minimize uncertainty in farming by buffering against the effects of water limitation, primarily in areas of annual water stress. In the US, this area has historically been the dryland farms of the Western Great Plains.

This first generation product is envisioned as the first in a family of drought traits that has the potential to provide farmers with irrigation cost savings, to help them achieve more consistent yields even during times of drought, and to protect against drought stress in normally rain-fed areas. Increased yield improves farmers’ productivity, helping them meet growing demands for feed, food and fuel.

Status

Field trial of corn with the drought tolerant gene (on right) and control hybrid (on left). Note the greater size and healthier structure of the drought tolerant corn.

As of January 2008, the first generation project moved into Phase III of our R&D pipeline, making it the industry’s first biotechnology drought project to move into the regulatory phase.

Currently Monsanto’s corn breeders are selecting hybrids for the ability to withstand drought stress typical for the US. Western Great Plains. The goal is to combine both the biotech drought traits with this adapted germplasm in combination with our SmartStax™¹ product, which is also in Phase III of our pipeline, to ensure that yield potential is consistently achieved.

View this excerpt from our January 2008 Pipeline Review presentation for more information regarding our drought-tolerant corn projects. Commercialization of these products will be dependent on many factors, including successful completion of the regulatory process. For more information regarding how we evaluate our pipeline and the factors that may affect our success, view our 2008 R&D Pipeline brochure.

Monsanto has partnered with the Water Efficient Maize for Africa project led by the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF) to bring drought tolerant technology to smallholder farmers in Africa royalty-free. Read more about the project here.

Click here to read more about Monsanto's commitment to agriculture in Africa.