Print This PageR&D Pipeline
While our existing seeds and traits platforms present rich, new growth opportunities globally for our business, Monsanto scientists are working diligently to support, discover and deliver new technologies that will create value not only for farmers but also for our shareowners well into the next decade. This year represented another blockbuster year for our R&D organization.
Our scientists participated in several key genome projects this year — projects that will help further unlock the yield potential of seeds.
During the year, our technology contribution to the global maize genome project helped support the completion of the first-draft genome of corn and enabled our business to create a genetic blueprint of one of our top-performing elite female corn lines. In addition, our scientists supported the completion of the first-draft genome of the soybean cyst nematode with one of our technology collaborators, Divergence, Inc. Certain species of nematodes, a small roundworm that attacks a crop’s roots, severely limit crop yields around the world, including in crops such as soybeans, corn, cotton and vegetables. These achievements are expected to help us develop better-performing seeds for farmers throughout the world.
We’re also working on discovering and licensing the next wave of technologies to bolster our R&D platform, ensure sustained growth and create new value for our business for the next several years. This year we entered into a five-year research and development collaboration with Evogene Ltd., aimed at identifying key yield, environmental-stress and fertilizer-utilization genes. The agreement is intended to enhance research efforts to discover and deliver novel, yield-enhancing technologies at a time of increasing demand for grain globally.
Our Research
Monsanto’s R&D program centers around increasing yields across three
large-acre crops – corn, soybeans and cotton – used for food, feed, fiber and fuel.
The company also invests in discovering and delivering new fruit and vegetable
products. We spend approximately $2.6 million per day to drive our R&D engine.
We are now in one of the most productive and exciting periods of our R&D pipeline,
which can help us widen the competitive gap. We’re poised to launch four game-changing
technology platforms that will rewrite productivity per acre and create
compelling growth for our shareowners well into the next decade. These technologies
are profiled below. More information on our entire R&D pipeline is
available online at www.monsanto.com/products/pipeline.asp.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield
Our Roundup Ready 2 Yield is expected to reset the penetration curve in soybeans,
and do so at least two years ahead of the nearest competitor. Four years of
Monsanto research trials demonstrate that the technology provides a consistent
yield advantage of 7 percent to 11 percent when compared with its predecessor.
Monsanto will introduce it on 1 million to 2 million U.S. acres for the 2009 season
as part of a controlled commercial release, followed by a large-scale product
launch on 5 million to 6 million U.S. acres scheduled for 2010.
SmartStax
In 2010 we plan a U.S. launch of SmartStax corn, which combines eight
modes of action in multiple traits and provides season-long yield protection
in three areas: above- and below-ground insect protection as well as our most
comprehensive weed-control package. We believe SmartStax will be the most
durable platform for our pipeline and the most consistent yield-enhancing
technology for corn farmers. In 2009, we will work on production plans aimed
at bringing this to market two years ahead of competition and resetting the
penetration curve in corn. We believe this technology can provide value to
both U.S. and Latin American farmers.
Drought
Within our corn-trait portfolio, our drought-tolerant corn family of technologies
represents a high-value and growth area for farmers and shareowners alike.
Our lead gene moved from Phase 2 to Phase 3 this year and became the
industry’s first drought-tolerance product to head into the regulatory and
commercial preparation phase. This gene delivers a yield improvement over
conventional checks, and we continue work to find the right combinations of
the drought gene and germplasm as we move toward the next major step of
our commercial launch strategy. We plan to deliver this technology to farmers
before the middle of the next decade.
Nitrogen
One of our most innovative and promising development projects is nitrogen-utilization
corn. We are focused on establishing proof of concept for this technology
and testing genes to identify opportunities for normalized yields in low-nitrogen
environments and for higher yields under normal nitrogen conditions. In one of
our lead events, we are seeing yield advantages in different hybrid backgrounds
over a two-year period and under normal nitrogen application rates. We believe
this technology can be a blockbuster for farmers because nitrogen is one of their
most price-sensitive input costs.
