Next breakthrough for farmers is a friendly fungus - Monsanto

Monsanto Co., a lightning rod for critics of modern agricultural techniques, is introducing a new feature next year for its genetically modified corn seeds that it says will not only boost yields but cut down on fertiliser use and carbon-dioxide emissions. The seed giant, together with Danish company Novozymes A/S, has developed a coating for seeds made from a friendly fungus that helps corn plants in their earliest growth stages.

St. Louis-based Monsanto, which earlier this year agreed to be acquired by Germany’s Bayer AG, is hailing the product as a breakthrough for microbial technology, in which scientists look to fungi and other organisms such as bacteria to help farmers.

Corn crops treated with the new Monsanto-Novozymes microbial - officially known as Acceleron B-300 SAT -- had better yields than those without the treatment, the companies said in a statement Monday. The product stays on seeds longer and is compatible with other chemical treatments, unlike previous versions. It could be applied to more than 90 million acres (36 million hectares) by 2025.

The seed treatment could “become one of the biggest biological products in the agricultural industry,” the vice president for Novozymes’ BioAg unit, Colin Bletsky said, adding that “Harnessing the power of nature’s microbes, farmers will be able to produce more crops.”

Farmers have been using synthetic chemical treatments for seeds for decades to protect plants from pests as they take root, and it’s a mature industry, Monsanto spokesman Mr John Combest said. Microbial seed treatments, in contrast, are niche products that have only boomed in the past decade, he said. The agricultural microbial market currently has about US$1.8 billion in sales, while traditional chemicals and pesticides is a market valued at about US$240 billion, Mr Combest said.

The new microbial coating, derived from a fungus called Penicillium bilaiae, works by growing along the roots of plants and helping them to access nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil. In trials, crops using the microbial boosted yields by more than three bushels an acre on average, according to the release.