Print This PageGenuity™ SmartStax™ Corn
Genuity™ SmartStax™ corn is the first, most durable and highest-yielding package for total weed and bug control in corn. In the fourth-annual R&D pipeline update, Genuity™ SmartStax™ moved into Phase 4, the final step prior to the product’s planned 2010 commercial launch. This phase includes development and testing of best trait and germplasm combinations for commercial launch.
Genuity™ SmartStax™ combines the industry’s best-performing trait package of herbicide tolerance and insect protection traits in a single multi-stacked corn trait product. It is designed to offer farmers eight different genes for herbicide tolerance and insect-protection in top-performing hybrids, providing the most comprehensive control system available.
The different trait platforms are designed to work together to offer superior performance throughout the growing season, protection against a broader spectrum of above- and below-ground insects and the most comprehensive protection against established and emerging secondary pests.
Genuity™ SmartStax™ is expected to be the platform on which future corn traits will be stacked and introduced to the market. Monsanto expects to reach 34 million to 35 million U.S. acres with a triple-stack corn offering in 2009, thus setting the stage for the broadest possible launch of Genuity™ SmartStax™ in 2010. Longer-term, this technology also can provide value to Latin American farmers.
Monsanto is currently working to bring this technology to market two years ahead of competition. In June 2008, Monsanto submitted a request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a refuge requirement for Genuity™ SmartStax™ of 5 percent in the northern Corn Belt and 20 percent in southern states where cotton is planted, a reduction from the refuge required for currently available technology. Monsanto noted that the EPA has already granted reduced refuge requirements for the product’s above-ground insect protection, a key step in the process.
Click here for forward looking language statement (.pdf 142K)
