March 19, 2010

Continued demand expands Monsanto's seed and trait offerings

Press Release

Monsanto has announced its unwavering commitment to helping farmers meet growing global demand, which drives the company's array of seed and trait offerings.

As world population growth and dietary shifts continue, Monsanto Company's ongoing investment in agriculture is bringing more choices to the farm than before, Brett Begemann, executive vice president - seeds and traits said during the Nomura Global Chemical Leaders Conference in Dublin. Those choices will help farmers around the world meet growing global demand for grain.

"Given the projections for global population growth and increasing dietary demands, the case stands to either grow more food on more acres or increase yields on the same acreage to meet the increased need for grain," Begemann said. With limited arable land, the future demand must be met through improvements in yield per acre.

Begemann discussed Monsanto's target of helping farmers to double 2000 yields in corn and soy by 2030 through technology, which has driven Monsanto's investment in biotechnology and breeding. "Combined with the germplasm libraries and molecular markers, Monsanto has developed, and this has equipped the company with the tools to deliver the highest-yielding, best-performing seed," Begemann said.

In the company's current commercial line up, Monsanto offers farmers a choice of next-generation technologies. In corn, Monsanto is unique in its ability to offer three different trait packages with reduced-refuge requirements that allow farmers to minimise the planting of structured refuges. Headlined by Genuity, SmartStax, the most comprehensive grower-protection package available on the market, the portfolio also includes GVT Double PRO, the industry's only above-ground stack with a 5% refuge and VT Triple PRO, the only triple-stack product with reduced refuge for the South.

Within the commercial portfolio, Begemann also discussed about Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soy, which will become a platform for expanded offerings in both the US and Brazil as the commercial portfolio grows with new trait introductions through this decade. In addition, Begemann introduced new traits in the pipeline to the Genuity SmartStax corn and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean platforms.