Zimbabwe farmers' group calls for acceptance of gene-modified seed

The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union has called on the government to drop its long-held opposition to GM seed and cultivation in order ' to increase agricultural output.'

Despite the government's opposition, many maize and soya bean products imported from neighbouring South Africa are on ZImbabwe's store shelves. A significant proportion of those crops grown in South Africa are of the GM variety. It is argued that this effectively obviates much of the government's reasons for keeping the GM ban in force.

How much the adoption of GM seed on its own improve yields will remain as heatedly contentious in Zimbabwe as anywhere else. Zimbabwe's farming problems involve much more complicated factors than the differences between hybrid seed (widely used) and GM seed.

For several years Zimbabwe has experienced deficits of the main staple crop, maize. Yet neighbouring countries Malawi and Zambia, which also officially frown on GM seed and use exclusively hybrid (or farmer-saved) seed have both experienced maize bumper harvests in recent years. Apart from the merits or demerits of GM crops for Zimbabwe, the focus on that one variable as 'the solution' to Zimbabwe's farming woes may be to merely miss the focus on where the real reasons for the country's relatively poor agricultural performance lie.

But the mere call by a senior official of an important farmers' representative group is significant. Until recently
there had been little discussion about GM crops, and the views of opponents in government and in 'civil society' had predominated. That has begun to change quite rapidly in the last year or two.

Amongst the reasons for the government's (or at least the agriculture minister's) continued opposition to GM crops is the standard 'burden of proof-of-their-being-unharmful-to-human-health argument. This is largely neutralized by the fact that any harmful effects to the population are already setting in if large parts of the population are already consuming many products with imported GM maize or soya beans.

The other argument is to protect Zimbabwe's fairly advanced hybrid seed multiplication industry. The country's annual hybrid seed requirement is put at 50,000 tonnes. The seed companies report they currently have stocks in excess of that by 20,000.

But there is no evidence that the seed companies necessarily appreciate their 'protection' from GM seeds by the government. In fact, one head of the (currently hybrid) seed industry has publicly said that they are ready and eager to go into the production of GM seed if and when regulatory approval is given. They do not see hybrid and GM seed production as being mutually exclusive

All these are signs that sooner or later GM crops-farming is coming to Zimbabwe.

African Agriculture

DuPont Pioneer now closer to takeover of South Africa's Pannar Seeds, but still fighting public relations battle

U.S. seed ginat Dupont Pioneer had to fight long and hard to get regulatory approval to 'merge' with (really take over) South Africa's Pannar Seeds. Despite spirited opposition by activist groups, Dupont was given approval to go ahead with the deal earlier this year, although that is being appealed.

Among the reasons for opposition to the takeover were fears of  a further swamping of South Africa with GM seeds, fears of a further reduction of 'seed sovereignty' and the general implications of the country's seed supply being significantly under the 'control' of a giant U.S. corporation.

Even though the merger deal is done, the merged entities are still fighting speculation that the price of maize, the country's staple crop and an important export commodity, would dramatically shoot up as a result of the Dupont Pioneer takeover of Pannar. 

Economist Mike Schussler got a lot of attention when he speculated in August that as a result of the merger, South African seed maize prices could rise as much as 15%. He also painted an alarming picture of the potential for collusion between Dupont Pioneer and the other seed giant, Monsanto, to push up seed maize prices. 

This caused much alarm as there is already a feeling that consumers are  squeezed by current maize flour prices. Schussler painted Dupont Pioneer as the big bad wolf. The company is clearly sensitive to this charge after the bruising battle to acquire Pannar.

Dupont Pioneer put out an outraged statement refuting Schussler's contention, with a spokesperson saying immediate post-merger prices were expected to increase by less than 2%.

It was carefully pointed out that out Schussler made his comments at a 'Syngenta-sponsored media event.' Sygenta and Monsanto are Dupont's competitors in the South African market, although the former is a relatively small  player.

Dupont Pioneer's statement also claimed that Schussler's research was sponsored by Syngenta, thereby cleverly planting a seed in the reader's mind about the objectivity and motivation for the research!

African Agriculture      

Kenya to attempt to prevent imported GM maize use as seed

by Gatonye Gathura

Kenyan millers licensed to import genetically modified maize must ensure the grain does not end up as seed.

Any lapse that could result in the seeds being planted will attract a fine of not less than Sh20 million or a jail term of 10 years, or both, a government agency said on July 5.

If this happens unintentionally, the importer will meet the costs of removing the seeds from circulation.

The acting head of the National Biosafety Authority, Dr Roy Mugiira, said the organisation would ensure such maize was only released as flour.

He hinted that one option being considered was to mill the maize at the point of landing. Initially, there were plans to sterilise GM seeds to stop them from germinating after harvest but this technology, called terminator, was never commercialised following widespread opposition.

The head of biotechnology at the Kenya Agricultural Research Centre, Dr Simon Gichuki, said the possible GM maize targeted by importers would be from South Africa and does not contain the terminator technology.

The maize being targeted by the millers has been engineered to develop resistance against weeds and insect pests. Another type of GM maize is being tested in Kenya for drought resistance but it is not yet ready for commercialisation.

If the current biosafety laws are to be followed strictly, then the earliest the first GM maize can land in the country legally is around October. According to the Biosafety Act, the regulatory authority will communicate its final decision of approval or rejection of an importing licence not earlier than three months after receiving the application.

Mugiira said no application has been considered as the authority has not yet published the import guidelines.

After allowing an importer to bring a genetically modified organism on the market, the law also allows any person to submit a written opposition within 30 days from the date the notice is posted.

An official at the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services said no genetically modified maize had been brought into the country yet.

The Nation

Zimbabwe to supply Tanzania cotton seed

A Zimbabwean company said May 21 it had clinched a deal with the Tanzanian government to supply the country's entire cotton seed requirements.

But Quton chairman Morgan Nzwere did not say how much was involved in the deal, which will cover seven years. Under the deal, the company will produce cotton seed in Tanzania under government contract, and supply farmers in the country.

'Quton entered into a seven-year seed multiplication agreement with the government of Tanzania. This will see Quton producing the entire cotton planting seed for Tanzania within the next two years,' Nzwere said.

Cotton has become a major export crop for Tanzania, overtaking coffee which had long held the number one position.

Last year, the East African country earned US$ 100 million from cotton exports.

Afriquejet

Chinese firm to provide US$500 million for cotton cultivation in Zimbabwe

by George Chisoko

Massive seed cotton production is anticipated in the 2010/11 growing season after the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe)(Cottco) and Chinese firm Sinotex struck a US$500 million deal to finance local production and purchases through a contract growing scheme.

This should be good news to farmers who have struggled to produce seed cotton, owing largely to Cottco's inability to grow the inputs scheme to cater for a huge pool of farmers.

The deal is being bankrolled by Ch-na Development Bank, which has already provided US$10 million as pre-shipment finance for the sale of lint by Cottco to Sinotex.

Cottco managing director, Mr David Machingaidze, was not at liberty to divulge details of the partnership, but impeccable sources said that the memorandum of understanding between Cottco, Sino-tex and CDB would be signed anytime this month.

The deal would enable Cottco, which presently contracts 200 000 farmers to grow seed cotton, to provide inputs support to additional 100 000 growers. This should result in a massive increase in seed cotton output and have a similar effect on lint production. There would also be job creation for about 5 000 people, especially during the cotton intake period.

Industry sources said in the partnership, Sinotex would, through CDB, provide the money for Cottco's operations while in turn Cottco, will provide local knowledge, the farmers and skills in risk management but would also hugely benefit through technology transfer.

Chinese farmers produce at least 2 000kg of seed cotton per hectare against local farmers' yield of 800 kg.

The benefits accruing from the partnership will be more than just inputs provision to farmers but also grower training, technology transfer in that the Chinese will bring their farming methods, which should hopefully increase local seed cotton yields.

"This is a massive economic empowerment project for our farmers. We have always had the farmers but they did not have full access to inputs for production. It is an exciting partnership in which we will use Chinese money to grow our capacity,'' said some sources close to the deal.

Cottco will sell all the lint from the contracted crop to Sinotex and the indicative quantity to be sold under the agreement is 5 000 tonnes. From last season's seed cotton production of 300 000 tonnes, Cottco was able to extract 120 000 tonnes of lint. Sinotex has the capacity to buy 800 0000 tonnes of lint, which is about six times more than national production.

Sinotex's capacity is thus a big challenge to Zimbabwe farmers to increase their production. Cottco has the potential, through its input scheme, of producing about 500 000 tonnes while the nation cotton production potential has been estimated at around 1 million tonnes.

The huge financial injection into Cottco's operations should go a long way towards making local farmers viable.

Cottco, which has suffered from side marketing of the contracted crop, has however, been able to achieve an inputs support recovery rate of between 65 and 95 percent last season, as farmers began to understand the importance of adhering to contracts.

The cotton crop is largely grown under contract with ginners who provide inputs and buy the seed cotton. From a high of 330 000 tonnes produced in 2004, the national crop dwindled to 207 000 tonnes in 2009 largely due to inadequate investment in inputs owing to the risks associated with funding cotton production.

It is hoped that the partnership between Cottco and Sinotex will result in an increase in seed cotton production as a result of the further increase in the provision of inputs.

The Herald

Drought-tolerant maize gets US debut

by Jeff Tollefson

When the planting season arrives later this year, farmers in the United States will have a new way to safeguard their crops from drought. Last week, DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, headquartered in Johnston, Iowa, announced plans to release a series of hybrid maize (corn) strains that can flourish with less water. The seeds will compete with another maize strain unveiled last July by Swiss agribusiness Syngenta. Both companies used conventional breeding rather than genetic engineering to produce their seeds.

Pioneer says that field studies show its new hybrids will increase maize yields by 5% in water-limited environments, such as the western states of the intensively agricultural Corn Belt region. That compares with the 15% yield gain promised by Syngenta for its maize. Both companies, as well as seed firm Monsanto, based in St Louis, Missouri, are also working on transgenic maize varieties, hoping to tap into a multibillion-dollar market.

In theory, drought-tolerant varieties could fill the gap left in maize supplies in recent years as stocks have been diverted for ethanol production. But not everybody is convinced that these crops will make a big difference.

"It's good news, but it's not great news," says David Zilberman, an agricultural economist at the University of California, Berkeley. No crop will survive a severe drought, he says, and other factors such as nutrient availability and soil quality are at play during water shortages, which tend to be more frequent but less severe than droughts. "It will be useful for a small number of really important areas," Zilberman says, "but my feeling is that people expect altogether too much from drought tolerance."

Creating drought-tolerant plants has proved to be a difficult challenge for plant breeders. Whereas resistance to a particular herbicide might be pinned down to one gene, the response to drought plays out across the genome. A plant's resilience also depends on when drought strikes — early or late in the life cycle, for instance — and on which nutrients are available. Moreover, varieties that perform better when thirsty often underperform when water is plentiful. The industry researchers identified thousands of genes associated with drought tolerance, then incorporated them into their hybrids through conventional breeding. "All of this technology has just come together beautifully in the past ten years," says Jeff Schussler, senior research manager at Pioneer.

The new varieties will be marketed only in the United States, but efforts to develop drought-tolerant maize are also under way in Africa and Asia. Working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors, international agricultural research centres have already introduced dozens of conventional drought-tolerant varieties into 13 of the most important maize-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These new varieties now make up 15–25% of the 19 million hectares of maize planted in these countries each year, according to Marianne Bänziger, deputy director-general for research and partnerships at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico City. A recent study by CIMMYT and its partners suggests that the new varieties could increase yields by 10–34%.

The big seed companies are also contributing expertise. Last year, South Africa was home to the first field trial for a transgenic drought-tolerant maize crop, incorporating a gene from the variety currently under development by Monsanto. Meanwhile, CIMMYT recently partnered with the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, based in Basel, Switzerland, to expand its drought-tolerant maize programme. "Within five years, we hope to have crops in Asia," Bänziger says.

Nature

Seed leaders Pioneer, Monsanto see South Africa backlash

The derailment of DuPont’s intended acquisition of a top South African seed company -- a deal that would have doubled DuPont’s African seed business -- is emboldening activists opposed to creeping control by both DuPont and rival Monsanto of the lucrative emerging market.

Citing unfair control in South Africa by the two dominant US seed companies, South African activists successfully convinced regulators this month to deny the bid by DuPont’s agricultural unit, Pioneer Hi-Bred, to buy South Africa’s largest seed company, Pannar Seed Ltd.

Now, opponents say they are planning to push for a regulatory investigation of the dominant position global seed leader Monsanto holds in the genetically modified seed sector in South Africa.

They argue allowing foreign corporate control of South Africa’s seed supply would erode availability of traditional conventional seed varieties, hurt export business with countries opposed to biotech crops, and force farmers deep into debt to pay for expensive seeds that are the patented properties of the US corporations.

"This is only the beginning of the battle over the control of seeds in (South Africa)," said Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the Africa Center for Biosafety (ACB).

Mayet said the group was preparing a study of Monsanto’s seed holdings and all the licensing and cross-licensing agreements in South Africa, particularly those dealing with corn or maize. The group will make a formal application to the South African Competition Commission to investigate and take action to protect against "negative socioeconomic impacts," Mayet said.

The South African Competition Commission confirmed it was rejecting Pioneer’s proposed acquisition of Pannar Seed due to concerns about market concentration. The deal would have doubled Pioneer’s seed sales on the continent to $200 million, and would have given it access to a broad base of local germplasm.

Company officials had touted the deal as the company’s largest ever, and said the 52-year-old South Africa-based seed germplasm company -- which specializes in maize and sorghum and operates seed businesses in nine African countries -- would help it broaden its infrastructure across the continent.

Pioneer’s bid for a controlling stake in Pannar marked the latest in a series of moves by major agricultural companies to stake a claim in Africa as concerns mount about global food security and population growth.

Pioneer and Monsanto already saturate the United States with their specialized high-yielding corn and soybean crops. And both see Africa as a key part of their international expansion efforts, affording substantial profit opportunities.

Both companies argue their specialized seeds will make farmers more productive, improve local livelihoods and help lift up a continent stricken by poverty.

"You look at the continent of Africa that has basically been flatlined in agricultural productivity for the last number of decades," said Pioneer President Paul Schickler. "If you can triple the productivity of Africa overall, that has a great impact."

Both Monsanto and Pioneer have the bulk of their African business in South Africa, a country that is increasingly embracing biotech crops, and both are working to open up neighboring nations that balk at biotech.

The hybrid corn, or maize, market in South Africa is worth an estimated $250 million. Pioneer claims about a one-third market share and Schickler describes the business as "very successful."

"Farmers everywhere ... if they have the opportunity to improve their productivity ... they are willing to pay for that," Schickler said.

Monsanto would not disclose its market share, but its influence is undeniable. Pioneer officials say about 75 percent of the hybrid maize planted in South Africa includes biotech traits derived from Monsanto, including Pioneer sales of hybrids that contain Monsanto-patented traits.

Across all of Africa there are an estimated 75 million acres, or 30 million hectares, available for maize production. Average grain yields are just 1 tonne per hectare, only one-fifth of yields in developed countries.

"There is a lot needed in Africa," said Jesus Madrazo, leader of Monsanto’s global commercial seeds and traits business. Monsanto has about 350 employees in Africa, compared with Pioneer’s 300.

Both Monsanto and Pioneer have been adding to their market strength in Africa through alliances with local agricultural organizations and acquisitions.

But as both companies have expanded, criticism has grown, as some accuse Monsanto and Pioneer of using the specter of hunger and poverty to promote controversial genetic engineering that critics fear is not safe and not environmentally friendly.

"GM seeds are not the solution to food security. Patented GM crops are a major obstacle to local food security and sovereignty," said Glenn Ashton, a BIOWATCH spokesman.

The African Center for Biosafety, BioWatch South Africa NGO, and even some US organizations argue against the expansion of the US seed conglomerates in Africa.

"This is about livelihoods, what people get to eat, how it is grown, and environmental implications. You are going to have two American companies control it all," said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of The Oakland Institute, a policy think tank focused on social, environmental and economic issues.

"They try to hoodwink us by talking about it in terms of feeding Africa. It is nothing else than the takeover of African agriculture," she said.

Monsanto and Pioneer are undeterred.

"There is going to be a lot of discussion about why biotech makes sense," said Madrazo. "Africa needs to go objectively through that debate if Africa is going to embrace new technologies in the future."

Reuters

Uproar over sale of South African seed company

by Bobby Jordan

The proposed sale of a majority stake in Greytown-based Pannar Seed to US-based Pioneer Hi-Bred is now before the South African Competition Commission, which will conduct public hearings on the matter.

Some of the submissions to the commission are highly critical of the proposed deal, and claim it would result in a seed cartel that could affect local agriculture negatively. However, the companies are adamant that the deal would help keep farmers in touch with global advances in seed technology.

Both Pannar Seed and Pioneer Hi-bred are world leaders in hybrid and genetically modified (GM) seed technology that includes several white and yellow maize varieties. GM maize makes up about 70% of SA's commercial maize crop.

Pioneer Hi-Bred is a subsidiary of Iowa-based DuPont, the world's leading developer and supplier of high-tech plant genetics.

In a written submission by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), the sale of Pannar Seed would give Pioneer Hi-Bred over 50% control of all SA GM maize varieties.

"If the adoption trends of the last few years for GM maize continue, it is not unreasonable to speculate that in the future SA could be faced with a situation where its staple food could be 'owned' by two multi-national corporations," the ACB submission said.

The sale therefore had huge implications for agricultural input costs and food security, the report said

"Such approval would in our view be disastrous for both local farmers and consumers alike; it would promote a huge monopoly to do as it pleases in regard to prices, stifling and discouraging new entrants into the market and encourage cartels and its associated negative propensities," the ACB submission said.

However, Pannar Seed managing director Deon van Rooyen said foreign investment in South African biotechnology would increase food security by ensuring higher yields and better use of available resources.

"There has been a technological revolution in the seed industry. If we don't do this type of deal, then you really will be sitting with a (agricultural) resource that declines in value. We want to increase the value for the region," he said.

He said Pannar needed an investment partner to make the most of its home-grown seed technology - both GM and non-GM.

"We're sitting on a lot of good South African genetics developed specifically in maize over the last 52 years - genetics that offer very good disease- resistance and that were developed specifically for use in SA and for countries to the north of us in which we operate. A lot of these new technologies take a lot of money (to develop) and you have to have substantial scale to be able to develop and utilise these and bring the products to market," Van Rooyen said. A partner such as Pioneer Hi-bred, which was already heavily invested in Africa, could help bring about the long-awaited African ''green revolution." he said.

Pioneer spokesman Jeff van Niekerk denied the sale would translate into higher seed prices: "Pioneer prices seed based on value delivered to farmers, and that model has remained consistent for the 80+ years we've been in business. Wherever you go in the world, farmers are interested in being more productive - greater yield equals greater profitability for farmers."

Timeslive

US agricultural concern to acquire majority stake in South African seed company

Pioneer Hi-Bred, a US-based agricultural business, and Pannar Seed, a South African-based seed company with operations throughout Africa and other parts of the world, recently announced an agreement for Pioneer to purchase a majority share of Pannar.

According to a press release, financial terms were not disclosed for the agreement, which is subject to review by the South African Competition Commission and other countries’ regulatory agencies. Pending regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close in early 2011. Pannar management, employees, facilities and brands will be retained.

Pannar has its own seed businesses in nine countries in Africa, including South Africa, and sells through established marketing networks into nine other African countries. In addition to its extensive research infrastructure in Africa, it also conducts research and commercial activities in the U.S. and Argentina and has a genetics licensing business in Europe.

“This is good news for our customers, for our employees and for South Africa,” said Brian Corbishley, Pannar chairman. “Pioneer is the ideal partner for the long-term growth of our business. They’ll help us meet our customers’ increasing needs for better and higher-yielding products and services.”

The investment is expected to allow each business to access additional crop areas, reach more customers and deliver improved seed products quicker than either can do on its own. Pannar receives access to Pioneer’s genetics library and its maize breeding and biotechnology capabilities which will benefit its African operations and its businesses in the United States and Argentina. Pioneer will tap into Pannar’s expertise and reach across Africa and its maize genetics developed specifically for the region.

With approximately 30 million hectares available for maize production, Africa represents a significant opportunity for improved productivity. Average grain yields are just one tonne per hectare, less than one-third of what is achieved in other developing regions and only one-fifth of yields in developed countries.

AFDB

Zimbabwe seed company experiences improved local, export sales

by MacDonald Dzirutwe

Seed Co Limited, Zimbabwe's largest seed producer, sees profit rising at least 50 percent this fiscal year from $13 million in the year to March 2010, buoyed by growing sales at home and in the region, its chief said.

Companies in Zimbabwe have started to recover after a decade of economic decline, which saw inflation rising to 500 billion percent in 2008, leaving the local currency worthless.

Zimbabwe discarded its local currency in favour of foreign currencies last year, which Seed Co Chief Executive Morgan Nzwere said had helped stem a decline in production at home, while demand was rising in southern Africa.

Seed Co has been expanding on the continent and controls more than half the maize seed market in Malawi and Zambia, 40 percent of the Tanzanian market. It is also testing new maize varieties for sale in Ethiopia and West Africa.

"We should see an overall growth of 70 percent in seed production (and) the profit should increase substantially," Nzwere said in an interview. "I think we should be able to achieve at least a 50 percent growth in profits."

The company posted an net profit of $13.3 million during the year ended March 2010 after revenues rose 43 percent to $77 million.

Nzwere said the company, which also produces wheat and cotton seed, was planning to raise maize seed production to 100,000 tonnes annually in the next three years, nearly double the projected output in 2010/2011.

Seed Co reinstated dividends this year, paying shareholders 1,39 U.S. cents a share and Nzwere said the company should be able to maintain its dividend policy in future.

Nzwere said the company would also be boosted by demand from governments providing free and subsidised seeds to poor farmers in Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

"The increased donor support to governments in the region to improve food security will continue to push up demand for seed for the foreseeable future and that should see the company benefitting from that," he said.

Reuters

West African seed investment fund launched

The West Africa Agricultural Investment Fund (“WAAIF”) and Injaro Investments Limited (“Injaro”) recently announced the closing of the first ever West African fund focused on investing in indigenous seed production companies.

The initial investors in the fund are The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the Lundin For Africa Society, a Vancouver-based foundation. The launch of the fund will provide capital that is desperately needed by West Africa’s critical but nascent seed production industry.

“The sole purpose of WAAIF is to provide high quality seeds to smallholder farmers in West Africa, thereby improving income and quality of life,” said Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA. “Direct investment in local seed companies will allow West African enterprises, working with local public crop breeders and local farmers, to act as a catalyst for prosperity amongst smallholder farmers.”

A joint statement by the partners said WAAIF is the first fund of its kind in West Africa: targeted specifically at promoting the growth of small- and medium-sized African seed companies through long-term loans provided at reasonable rates. WAAIF will thus fill a critical funding gap in West African agricultural development—financing for its seriously underdeveloped and undercapitalized seed sector.

Across West Africa there are around 20 small-to-medium sized seed companies, compared to over 50 in East and Southern Africa and the hundreds that operate in Europe or in the United States. To help fill this gap, WAAIF will initially operate in five countries—Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.

“Africa’s plant breeders have begun developing high yielding, locally-adapted seed that would enable farmers to double or triple their yields,” said Joseph DeVries, director of AGRA’s Seeds Programme. “We now need a vibrant seed sector that gets these varieties to farmers. WAAIF will enable this--it is venture capital for West Africa’s seed entrepreneurs.”

The lack of a robust African seed industry has left smallholder farmers with few choices. Smallholder farmers—who grow most of the food consumed in Africa—can neither afford nor access high-yielding quality seed varieties of their staple food crops. Whereas improved seed has been responsible for more than half of global yield increases, African smallholder farmers must rely on saved seed whose quality has deteriorated over time, producing the world’s lowest cereal yields and ensuring chronic hunger and malnutrition.

The AGRA-Lundin-Injaro partnership aims to jumpstart a well-capitalised, competitive and efficient regional seed industry; with commercial incentive to produce, distribute and market improved seed varieties that meet farmers’ demands.

"WAAIF will invest in, and partner with, seed companies, with a view to supporting their transition to viable commercial entities that provide high quality seed to smallholder farmers at a reasonable price, said Jerry Parkes, Managing Principal of Injaro. The average investment size will be around US$250,000 and the fund will seek an overall net return of 3% on its investments.

In addition to capital investment, Injaro and AGRA will provide business development services, including continual advice on issues like seed production, storage, and distribution and seed company management. Distributors will also be trained on the appropriate use of seeds and other inputs such as fertilizer, to ensure the most efficient, safe and environmentally sound use of all.

WAAIF will seek to actively involve women as entrepreneurs, workers, and smallholder farmers. Women make up the majority of Africa’s smallholder farmers and have the greatest impact on the livelihood of their families, yet face many impediments to education, training and access to finance.

To qualify, companies will need to meet investment criteria in the following areas: corporate governance, output of improved seed, financial performance, and a range of development criteria. The latter includes measures such as overall job creation, skills development in rural communities, and an environmentally benign footprint.

“Until recently, only well-off, large-scale farmers bought improved seed,” DeVries said. “The seed market is evolving to recognize that the real market is at the bottom of the pyramid, among millions of smallholder farmers. The prices, crops and varieties marketed need to reflect that.

“African farmers need improved varieties of maize more than any other farmers in the world. Their livelihoods—their very survival—depends on it.” DeVries added.

And while maize will be an important crop for the program, it will not be the only one. Companies producing seed for such staple crops as beans, cowpea, rice, sorghum, soya bean, millet and others will be encouraged to apply.

“Rather than having to chose between poor quality low-yielding seed or high-cost hybrid seed marketed by multinationals, African farmers will have another choice,” Ngongi said. “We can foresee the day when dozens, if not hundreds, of small- and medium-sized African seed companies are working across the region with local, public sector breeders to get low-cost, high-quality seed to farmers across the West African sub-region.


My Joy Online

Monsanto, DuPont race to win $2.7 billion drought - resistant corn market

by Jack Kaskey and Antonio Ligi

Lance Russell's neighbors aren't used to seeing cornfields. The area near Hays, Kansas, where Russell has long tilled 2,500 acres of sorghum, wheat, and sunflowers, has always been too dry and hot for corn. The neighbors will be in for a surprise this summer as Russell plants 230 acres of drought-tolerant corn that DuPont  is testing. An experimental sorghum plot Russell planted in 2009 improved yields "by a landslide," he says.

After battling for a decade over the $11 billion market for insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant seeds, DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta are turning their attention to crops that can survive drought. DuPont estimates that up to 150 million acres of drought-tolerant corn eventually could be planted globally. For seed producers, that could add up to annual revenues of $2.7 billion, or about 10% of the global seed market and nearly a third of corn seed sales. "Farmers around the world are going to pay hundreds of millions of dollars" for seeds that require less water, predicts Michael Mack, chief executive of Syngenta.

The technology could change the economics of farming by reducing the need for irrigation, lowering crop insurance premiums, and boosting land values in water-starved regions. With agriculture accounting for 70% of global freshwater use, "The biggest single issue in farming going forward is...water availability," says Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant.

Even relatively small changes can make big differences in agriculture, which could see more areas prone to drought due to global warming. "If we can apply two inches less water, that would be a huge benefit because groundwater supplies are always diminishing," says Kevin C. Dhuyvetter, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University.

In the U.S., drought-tolerant seeds could push the western edge of the corn belt farther into Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Expanding corn supplies might breathe new life into ethanol projects, which have been hobbled in recent years by rising prices for corn.

DuPont says seed being tested on 5,000 acres across the western Great Plains this year could boost yields in dry environments by more than 6%. Syngenta is aiming to increase yields by at least 10%. Both companies used conventional breeding to develop the seeds for sale next year, with biotech versions (from corn plants whose genes have been tweaked to increase drought tolerance) due later in the decade.

Monsanto is moving directly to a biotech version that it says will increase corn yields in drought-prone areas by 6%-10%. The company says its offering, developed with BASF, may be ready in 2012, making it the first seed genetically engineered to tolerate drought. By 2020, Monsanto and BASF hope to see 55 million acres of corn across the U.S. planted with their product. Last year, 71 million acres of corn in the U.S.—82% of the total—were planted with seeds that had Monsanto's genetic traits to help resist insects or herbicides.

Besides its work on drought-tolerant corn, Monsanto is engineering cotton, wheat, and sugar cane seeds for drier climes. Developing crops that require less irrigation not only contributes to more sustainable farming, Grant says, but also will help farmers in the developing world. Monsanto and BASF are donating drought-resistant corn seeds to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through the Nairobi-based African Agricultural Technology Foundation.

Still, the drought-resistant seeds aren't winning over opponents of genetically modified foods. They say the latest technology may further taint conventional corn supplies and allow large companies to perpetuate an industrial agriculture system that remains too water-intensive. "Their approach is that...we can use technology to adapt to any problems and make money at the same time," says Maude Barlow, chairwoman of Washington-based Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable agriculture.

Back on the dry plains of Kansas, Russell says such concerns are outweighed by the benefits of growing crops with less water. DuPont's offering outperformed competitors' seeds by 15% last year when the weather was relatively mild. "Honestly, I wouldn't mind a dry, hot year," Russell says, "where I can really test these varieties."

The bottom line: Technology that boosts crop yields despite dry environments will become a growth engine for agriculture companies.

Business Week

The pros and cons of genetically modified seeds

Earlier this month, Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, admitted that its genetically engineered "Bt" (bacillus thuringiensis) cotton seed wasn't all that farmers in India had hoped.

Reports coming in from four districts of India's Gujarat state indicated that the company's seeds had not been able to prevent a pest called the pink bollworm from attacking cotton crops. Activists hoping to protect the country's biodiversity and its farmers from excessive dependence on multinational seed companies hailed the news as a victory in the latest round of an increasingly shrill public debate on the role of GM crops. About 90% of India's cotton is based on Bt cotton seed; Monsanto and its licensees are the dominant suppliers of those seeds.

The anti-GM camp had reason to cheer a few weeks earlier as well, when Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh abruptly put a moratorium on an insect-resistant variety of aubergine seed, known as Bt brinjal, on the eve of its much-hyped launch.

But the battle is far from over. Shortly after the moratorium was declared, the government also made overtures to GM advocates by insisting that it did not want to shut the doors on the industry. Noting biotechnology's importance for "higher agricultural productivity and ensuring food security," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for additional studies on the environmental and health effects of GM crops and promised to set up a national biotechnology authority to stimulate investment in seed development.

Fact vs. Fiction

As the Bt brinjal episode highlights, using GM seeds -- often referred to as "transgenics" -- to increase food production and lower production costs is fraught with controversy. "In the debate over biotech crops, differentiating fact from fiction is not easy," according to a paper on the economic impact of transgenic crops published last year by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C. "The debate has been confused by the influence of rigid, absolutist views (both supportive of and opposed to biotech crops) about the role of science in society, combined with a general ignorance of science."

The global battle lines in the controversy over GM seeds were drawn more than a decade ago in Europe, where strong anti-GM activist groups, including the likes of Greenpeace, have successfully lobbied against GM seeds, claiming that they are unsafe for human consumption and weaken or destroy other seeds and crops. But GM seeds -- for cotton, maize, soybean and rice, among others -- have steadily found their way into the agriculture of a number of countries, including the U.S., Canada, China, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina. On March 2, after a 12-year wait, the European Union approved the cultivation of a GM potato and the import of three types of maize.

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a nonprofit that monitors the use of GM crops, there are more than 14 million farmers in 25 countries producing GM crops -- an 80-fold increase since 1996, when GM seeds were first commercialized. In 2009, there were 134 million hectares of "biotech" crops worldwide, representing an 8% increase year on year.

"The clear message is that small farmers are getting substantial benefits" from transgenic crops, says Carl E. Pray, professor with the agricultural, food and resource economics department at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who is currently studying the impact on small farmers of GM crops in South Africa, China and India. "The gain in terms of higher yields or reduced pesticide use is usually a lot more than the increase in the cost of the seeds."

As for India, its $1.5 billion seed industry is the fifth largest in the world, with the private sector accounting for three quarters of it, of which Missouri-based Monsanto controls more than 60%. Commercial seeds -- including "hybrids" that combine different crop varieties to achieve higher yields and pest resistance -- account for 15% of the country's total supply, with farm-saved seeds making up the rest.

Over recent years, the seed industry has been encouraged by Bt cotton, which was first commercialized in India in 2002 and continues to be the only type of Bt crop allowed to grow in the country. Bt, which introduces a gene into seeds to disrupt the bollworm insect that plagues cotton crops, has lifted India's cotton production from 190 million bales in 2003 to 310 million bales currently, according to Satish Kagliwal, managing director of Nath Biogene, a seed-manufacturing company in Maharashtra's Aurangabad city, which sells a Bt cotton seed called Fusion and so-called "hybrid" seeds for a variety of other crops. "The same thing can be repeated in other [non-cotton] crops," he says. In the case of aubergine, Bt brinjal would attack the fruit and shoot borer insects that wreak havoc on those crops.

'A Rude Shock'

With February's abortive launch of Bt brinjal, however, "we have fallen behind by at least 10 years and this will have a telling effect on the country's food security," says Kagliwal. "If we are not focused on developing varieties of seeds that can resist pests, insects, heat and drought, we won't have enough food to feed the teeming millions." The government's decision "has given seed companies investing in research a rude shock," he says, adding that "investment efforts will be stopped and new technology will be delayed." Bt brinjal itself took nine years of R&D, according to its developer, Mumbai-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco).

Meanwhile, in the anti-GM camp, there's concern that Bt cotton and the like are doing more harm than good. "On paper, genetic engineering is made to look very good, but on the ground it's a tragedy," says Vandana Shiva, a physicist turned environmental activist in Dehradun in Uttarakhand state, who runs Navdanya, a nonprofit that donates more than 3,000 varieties of salt-tolerant rice seeds to farmers. "Otherwise, we wouldn't have farmer suicides concentrated in the Bt cotton belt." More than 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide over the past decade, according to government statistics, which Shiva blames in part on farmer indebtedness aggravated by transgenic cotton seeds.

"The indebtedness is created by nonrenewable [transgenic] seeds that have to be bought every year," rather than the farm-saved ones, which can be re-used, she says. After Bt seeds arrived in the country in 2002, the price of cotton seeds jumped from Rs. 7 a bag (which covers one acre) to Rs. 1,700 a bag, she says. (The price today is around Rs. 750.) For its part, Monsanto disagrees with the notion that Bt cotton seeds have had anything to do with the spate of farmer suicides, noting on its website that the trend began well before its cotton seeds were introduced to the market.

However, Shiva adds that farmers are also being misled about the seed products they're being sold. Because seed companies in India are allowed to market their products under a self-regulatory system of labeling, the yield and other properties can be overstated. "There is no independent check," says Shiva. In an article in the Huffington Post in April 2009, she alleged, "Monsanto sells its GMO seeds on fraudulent claims of yields of 1,500 kilograms a year [per acre] when farmers harvest 300 kg/year to 400 kg/year on an average."

As for the seed companies' claims that Bt brinjal will reduce the need for insecticides by as much as 90%, she counters that Bt cotton seeds have, in fact, increased that need because they have become more resistant to pests. "Bt cotton, even though promoted as resistant to the bollworm, has created new pests, and to control these new pests, farmers are using 13 times more pesticides then they were using prior to introduction of Bt cotton," she wrote in the Huffington Post article.

Shiva contends that government policies and private-sector seed manufacturers erode the banks of native seeds, yet fail to deliver improved seeds. "Genetic engineering cannot engineer tolerance to drought, floods or [salinity]." She accuses multinational seed companies of "bio-piracy, where you take stuff from the Third World, claim it to be an invention of a U.S. company, and then sell it back for a profit, and forbid the original contributors from having free access." Further, she says MNCs control the Indian seed market, both directly and by licensing seed varieties to numerous domestic Indian companies. Monsanto, for example, has a 26% equity stake in Mahyco, the first Indian company to commercially grow and market Bt cotton in 2002, and has licensing deals with 27 seed companies for Bt cotton in the country.

Kagliwal acknowledges that the fear of MNCs taking over the Indian seed industry is real, and that he too would rather not have them as competitors. In fact, Nath Biogene did not jump at licensing Monsanto's Bt cotton technology and shopped around before settling on a Chinese source, he says. Yet he sees merit in using technologies that MNCs have developed over many years. "Either you develop it yourself or pay the price for it," he says. Farmers earned Rs. 6,000 ($150) more per acre by paying Rs. 200 ($4) for Bt cotton seeds. "Isn't the cost-benefit ratio simple to see here?" he asks.


The Rift Grows

Will a seed policy that's now in the works address anti-GM concerns? Some of the proposed changes include making the registration of seed varieties compulsory and increasing the penalties for impingements. Yet Shiva fears these proposals target farmers' indigenous seed varieties that have evolved as resistant to drought, floods and frost. Compulsory registration will make it illegal to plant unlicensed varieties and increase farmers' dependency on "corporate" seeds, she adds.

Though the government has not set a timetable for the new policy's rollout, its objective is clear, says R. K. Sinha, executive director of the National Seed Association of India, who is among the range of stakeholders the government has asked to provide input for the new policy: "We should be in a position to supply the best planting material. The source is immaterial -- public, private, domestic or from abroad."

He sees "immense" opportunities for GM seeds in India, but calls for a "science-based approach" in deciding whether to permit which ones should be allowed. "Our problems are declining availability of arable land, declining resources, increasing population, low productivity and heavy losses due to drought, pests and salinity," he says. "We will support any technology that helps us combat those, and GM is an important element of it."

As for what India can learn from the experiences of other countries, Gyanendra Shukla, a director at Monsanto (India) in Mumbai, says China sets a good example: "It had a clear-cut policy statement that it is going to use GM crops to the fullest extent," he says. "If China can produce 450 million tons of grain from 100 million hectares, why can't India produce even 300 million metric tons from 135 million hectares, which is the second largest arable land in the world?" Shukla asks. India currently produces about 230 million tons of food grains annually.

Pray of Rutgers recommends a regulatory system that achieves two objectives. One is to keep errant elements out: "It certainly is possible to think about government plant breeders or biotech or private-sector scientists doing things that could affect the nutritional profile of the plant or potential allergens," he says. Second, he cites the need for strong competition policies, because "companies will use their scientific advantage to increase their share of their market."

But while the central ministry of environment and forests controls the release of specific strains of GM seeds, agriculture is very much a state-level issue, and it is the individual states that can sway the GM debate in India. At least 13 states, including Karnataka and Orissa, opposed Bt brinjal's commercial launch, while a few other states, including Maharashtra and Gujarat, wanted more time to examine the issue. Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, which did not openly oppose Bt brinjal, account for about 40% of the country's brinjal production, so have arguably the most to gain or lose from the outcome.

But now that cotton is back in the spotlight, the debate could have even more twists and turns than it currently does. Shiva sees the latest news about Bt cotton's inability to combat the bollworm as a ploy by Monsanto to win support for its next generation of Bt cotton "It's like the pesticide treadmill … when you have resistance to [one type of GM seed] you use a more lethal pesticide," she says. Monsanto notes that the type of resistance seen in Gujarat "is natural and expected" and says it is stepping up monitoring. It also is calling for an "intensified farmer education campaign," noting that farmers may be using the Bt cotton seed improperly.

Until more trials and studies are complete, it seems that the only thing now for India's anti- and pro-GM lobbyists to do is to simply agree to disagree.


Wall Street Journal

Nigeria annually spends $700 million to import rice from Thailand

by Nhozi Sams

Nigeria imports one million tonnes of rice, valued at $700m, from Thailand every year.

This was disclosed by Prasit Damrongshitama, the Chief Executive Officer of Chareon Pokphand, CP, Group of Thailand, who led a team of Thai businessmen on a courtesy visit to the Abuja office of the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) in January.

He said the investors are in Nigeria to explore possible investment opportunities in the nation's agriculture sector, saying that trade volume between Nigeria and Thailand is now valued at $800million.

He said the group is promoted by Thailand's Board of Investment and is a leader in the premium rice sector in processing and packaging high quality rice for the domestic and overseas markets. The company's rice processing plants according to him are capable of producing 360,000 tonnes a year.


He said Nigeria is the second largest importer of Thai rice in Africa and is qualified for further investment. "Every year Nigeria imports one million metric tonnes of rice from Thailand which is about $700million. We import oil and gas from Nigeria, and last year it was put at $10 million for oil and $20million for gas. The total trade volume between us is $800milion."

Mr. Damrongshitama said the prospects of good economic growth and friendly investment climate necessitated the decision to explore more opportunities for investment in Nigeria, saying the Thai company is considering setting up a seed company in Nigeria to grow rice and maize.

The huge population of Nigeria which is almost two times bigger than Thailand, according to him, is a good bait for any prospective investor. "We want to bring rice to grow in Nigeria. Nigeria's land is good for agriculture like ours. We are good partners and have experience in seed business and looking at potential for tropical seeds production. Nigeria has all it takes," he said.

The team interacted with various agencies of government involved in seed production and sales in a bid to have access relevant information, and get samples of Nigerian soil to know which specie of grains to bring into the country, consider the procedure for acquisition of land and registration processes involved in setting up the company.

The Executive Director of the Nigeria Seed Company, Olasukanmi Sobowale, told the Thai investors that the country is willing to accept their investment proposals and will allow them bring in their grains for the first four years before they can go into full scale local production. "There are facilities in place for you to establish a Nigerian seed company," he said, adding that plans are underway to review the seed law of Nigeria to further protect all forms of investment.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, Mustafa Bello, hinted at the government's plan to adopt sector specific policies to attract investment in all sectors of the economy. This will boost investment since information relevant to every sector will be made available.

He said it is a good idea that the Thai group is not only going to grow maize and rice in Nigeria, but will also conduct integrated agricultural research which will be relevant for other investors in the sector. He said expectations are high that with the full execution of Thai's agenda, prices of grain will be reduced in Nigeria.

Next

Brazil, US accused of 'exploiting' African sorghum seed with patent application

An international treaty designed to protect seeds from commercial exploitation is allegedly being violated by the US and Brazilian governments and a Texas university.

According to the Johannesburg-based African Centre for Biosafety a Tanzanian sorghum seed, held in trust under the treaty by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India is being patented the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the Texas A&M University.

The treaty - the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) also known as "the Seed Treaty" - prohibits patent claims on varieties and genes of plants that are held in trust.

Mariam Mayet, director of ACB, said: "On the face of it, it appears as if the Seed Treaty has been violated. (It) is a new chapter in a long history of appropriation of African sorghum diversity by foreign interests."

A briefing paper by Edward Hammond by published by the centre says that the gene which enables tolerance to aluminium toxicity in acid soils, which is a problem affecting parts of north America and Europe and as much as 30% of arable land in Latin America, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa has strong commercial potential.

"Although it was only recently identified, the giant multinational Dow Chemical is already negotiating with the US government to licence it. Japan's second largest paper products company has also expressed interest in buying access to it," Hammond said.

The gene (SbMATE) is not only useful in sorghum, but also may be used in other crops including genetically engineered (GE) maize, wheat, and rice as well a GE eucalyptus tree plantations.

"The SbMATE gene does not rightfully belong to the USDA, Embrapa, or Texas A&M, and those institutions must abandon their unjust claims to the Tanzanian gene," Hammond said. "The institutions that are charged with protecting this resource - must act to protect - trust plants and genes from such claims. The genius of African farmers that is locked up in (international research) vaults and other seed banks cannot be allowed to be used to undermine diverse farming systems and earn profit for multinational corporations. These seed collections should rather serve the interests of African farmers, sustainable food production systems and the preservation and development of in situ genetic diversity. This does expressly not include the packaging of in trust genes and plants into patents and selling them to the highest bidder.

"Sorghum came from Africa and it remains vital for food security on the continent today. African sorghums have also historically, and to the present, been the foundation upon which the sorghum industries of the United States and other countries have depended."
Fin24

 

Is Monsanto corporate saint or sinner?

Few companies excite such extreme emotions as Monsanto. To its critics, the agricultural giant is a corporate hybrid of Victor Frankenstein and Ebenezer Scrooge, using science to create foods that threaten the health of both people and the planet, and intellectual-property laws to squeeze every last penny out of the world’s poor. The list of Monsanto’s sins dates back to when (with other firms) it produced Agent Orange, a herbicide notorious for its use by American forces in Vietnam. Recently “Food Inc”, a documentary film, lambasted the company.

To its admirers, the innovations in seeds pioneered by Monsanto are the world’s best hope of tackling a looming global food crisis. Hugh Grant, the firm’s boss since 2003, says that without the sort of technological breakthroughs Monsanto has achieved the world has no chance of doubling agricultural output by 2050 while using less land and water, as many believe it must. Mr Grant, of course, would say that. But he is not alone. Bill Gates sees Monsanto’s innovations as essential to the agricultural revolution in Africa to which his charitable foundation is committed. Josette Sheeran, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme, is also a fan.

Monsanto has come a long way from its roots in pharmaceuticals and chemicals (in which capacity it made Agent Orange). The original company was formed in 1901 to make saccharine. In 2000 it merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn, a drugmaker. Two years later the group’s agricultural activities were spun off into a new Monsanto. At that time the company was best known for Roundup, a herbicide popular with farmers. Roundup is still a leading brand, but margins have been eroded by competition from Chinese producers of other forms of glyphosate weedkiller. Roundup’s share of Monsanto’s revenue is shrinking towards 10%. There is talk that it might be sold. “It is no sacred cow. We look at it every year,” says Mr Grant.

Today most of Monsanto’s $11.7 billion of annual sales come from seeds, increasingly of genetically modified (GM), or transgenic, varieties (see chart), and from licensing genetic traits. Indeed, it is now best known, for better or worse, for applying biotechnology to seed production, winning a string of the sort of patents on living organisms that became legal in America only after a Supreme Court decision in 1980. In July it gave its GM seed a new master brand: Genuity, a name that evokes “being genuine, authentic and original”, according to a company spokesman. It will denote a “family of innovative products that will enable farmers to do what they do best, even better.”

In the 13 years since GM seed was first farmed commercially, agriculture—and Monsanto with it—has become increasingly central to several of the world’s most pressing policy debates, says Mr Grant, a Scot who joined the company in 1981. Nowadays he spends a good deal of his time taking part in those debates, which range from concerns about higher prices and shortages of supply to the use of land for growing biofuels rather than food, climate change and water. Arguments over water, thinks Mr Grant, “will dwarf the discussion that has taken place so far over food.” Monsanto is also getting caught up in the debate over intellectual-property rights in food and their implications for antitrust policy, on which Barack Obama’s administration sounds less friendly than that of George Bush. It has already marked agriculture for attention.

How successful Monsanto and rival makers of GM seed, such as DuPont and Syngenta, are in winning round a sceptical public and policymakers will play a big part in determining how lucrative their innovations prove to be. In public attitudes to GM food, Mr Grant believes “there’s been progress everywhere compared with 15 years ago.” Still, Europe remains “slow, a real slouch. European farmers have been denied the right to choose.”

Although the European Union is slowly becoming open to imports of GM food, it is still largely opposed to growing the stuff. Monsanto has still to complete a test of any GM seed in Britain because protesters have destroyed its experiments. In Latin America, by contrast, Argentina and Brazil are both growing GM corn (maize) and soyabeans. In some ways, rising awareness of the food crisis has helped people to see “GM as something with potential benefits other than just boosting the profits of Big Food,” says Mr Grant—to Monsanto’s benefit. Well, maybe.

Monsanto’s innovations fall into two categories. The first is breeding, which seedmakers have been doing with increasing sophistication for decades. Monsanto is able to accelerate the process of selective breeding through better mapping of a seed’s genetic qualities and its suitability to grow in a particular place.

At Monsanto’s research laboratory in St Louis, the company’s home city, farmers on one of the many tours that are part of its marketing efforts are clearly fascinated by a piece of technology known as the corn chipper. A machine picks up an individual seed, rotates it to the right position, then chips off a sample, which has its genetic material analysed. (Getting the seed in the right position is the hardest step, because each one has a different shape and it is crucial that the chipper does not damage the embryo and thus stop the seed from growing properly.) The likely attributes of the plant that would grow from each seed are predicted from its DNA, the most promising seeds are planted, and the process is repeated with the seeds that those plants go on to produce.

The tour guide refers to the operation as “CSI: St Louis”, although testing now goes on all year, at centres around the world. In the past three years this technology has helped speed up dramatically Monsanto’s ability to identify and grow the most productive seed for any given location. “It is the mother and father of all dating agencies: we can analyse every single seed we harvest, do a health check, guess what its grandchildren will be like, send it anywhere in the world,” says Mr Grant.

The second category of innovation, in which Monsanto is becoming increasingly adventurous, is genetic modification: identifying genetic traits with particular qualities and transplanting those traits into seeds to improve their performance. In essence, the goal is to pack as much technology into a seed as possible.

The biggest breakthroughs so far have been in weed and bug control. Perhaps the most common feature of Monsanto’s range of seeds is that they are Roundup Ready, meaning that they are guaranteed to survive spraying with Roundup that will take out any surrounding weeds. Some plants have been bioengineered to deter pests from eating their leaves and roots, which reduces or even eliminates the need for insecticides. Farmers on their tours cannot fail to miss the display cases in which a healthy Monsanto plant grows next to a seriously ailing traditional specimen of the same variety.

Monsanto has just launched two new varieties of seed that have been engineered to be far more productive: Genuity SmartStax corn, which company trials suggest can increase yields by 5-10%; and Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soyabeans, which in trials have shown yields 7-11% higher than the first generation of Roundup Ready soyabeans. Over the past couple of decades, soyabean yields have risen at an annual rate of barely 1%.

In around 2012 or 2013 Monsanto expects to launch a soyabean whose processing will result in fewer transfats. It will also offer an “omega-3 soyabean”, genetically enhanced to give consumers the many proven health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. Until now, omega-3 has been harvested from fish and so, in Mr Grant’s words, “products with omega-3 in them taste a bit fishy.” Fish derive omega-3 from algae, so Monsanto has done likewise, extracting the relevant genetic material from the algae and putting it into soyabeans. Now, he says, without the fishy taste, omega-3 will go well in yogurts, health bars and so forth.

The company is also aiming to engineer seed to use nitrogen more efficiently—and hence to require less fertiliser. This would reduce farmers’ exposure to the price of oil, from which fertilisers are made, and the damage done when nitrogen leaches into the water supply.

In about three years’ time Monsanto expects to launch its first “drought tolerant” products. It is examining several ways of making plants more tolerant of drought. One is to improve the roots’ take-up of water. Another is to reduce water loss through the leaves. A third is to alter plants’ reaction to lack of water. When stressed, a plant shuts down growth in order to conserve what it has. They often over-react, and use a lot of energy when they restart. Genetic modification can help it interpret water conditions more accurately and avoid unnecessary stops and starts.

Because water shortages are predicted for many parts of the world, Monsanto expects these drought-tolerant plants to be a huge commercial success. The first of them will be corn, intended for a dry strip of America running from northern Texas to the Dakotas. Drought-tolerant technology has also prompted Monsanto to start focusing on dry-land wheat. Wheat acres have declined in recent years, contributing to shortages. In July the company paid $45m for WestBred, a wheat-seed firm.

Acquisitions have been a key part of Monsanto’s strategy, giving it access to new seed markets. In 2005, it began to apply biotech to vegetables after buying Seminis, the world’s largest vegetable-seed company, for $1.4 billion. Since it was spun off, Monsanto has made more than 20 acquisitions (as well as several disposals). Those purchases are one reason why it was singled out as an appropriate target for the antitrust authorities in a paper published in October by the American Antitrust Institute, an independent competition watchdog. The paper laments the “impaired state of competition in transgenic seed”—which it blames on Monsanto above all.

The company’s acquisitions have been crucial in creating the horizontal and vertical integration that support its platforms in cotton, corn and soyabeans. Last year its share of the markets for GM corn and soyabeans was about 65% and that for GM cotton about 45%. The institute’s paper argues that, thanks to its dominance, Monsanto is actually harming innovation in seed. Monsanto had to make concessions to win the antitrust authorities’ approval for two of its biggest purchases, of DeKalb in 1998 and of Delta and Pine Land in 2007.

True, for the past 13 years Monsanto has been licensing its technology broadly, to hundreds of firms, including some of its main competitors. This, the paper concedes, has ensured that Monsanto has not ended up in “control of large, totally closed platforms in transgenic seed that could be challenged only by the unlikely emergence of rival platforms.” However, it cites Monsanto’s reputation for defending its intellectual property fiercely through the courts as another reason why the antitrust authorities should take a look at the firm.

Monsanto’s terms of business require farmers to buy fresh seed every year. Its new Violator Exclusion Policy denies farmers who break the terms of its licences access to all its technology for ever. This summer it achieved its latest success in enforcing its stern line when it won a case against some Canadian farmers who had held on to seed.

Agricultural markets have been mentioned as an area under review by officials in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice. The DoJ is expected to make Google its main target, but it will be no surprise if Monsanto comes a close second. Already, the DoJ is looking into complaints by DuPont, perhaps Monsanto’s fiercest rival. In May Monsanto sued DuPont, alleging that Pioneer, DuPont’s seed arm, had broken licensing terms for herbicide-resistant technology in corn and soyabeans. After an ugly war of words, DuPont countersued and complained to the DoJ.

“We are in a hyper-competitive business. Farmers have no shortage of choice,” insists the unapologetic Mr Grant. “Our goal is to be competitive every spring at the farmer’s table. A farmer may be willing to abdicate the decision on what chemicals to use, but not on what seed to plant. We aim to win one field at a time, one spring at a time.” Enforcing licences is crucial to that strategy. Just as in the drug industry, innovation is expensive: Monsanto has a research and development budget of nearly $1 billion a year, and reckons it costs $100m to bring a new GM seed to market. If there is to be innovation, the firm insists, intellectual property must be protected.

However, Monsanto is using different language—and a different approach from that of big drugmakers—when it comes to dealing with the millions of poor people in Africa. Mr Grant says that he is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the pharmaceutical industry in holding back on making valuable innovations available to the developing world. He believes that “in a perfect world, on the same day you launch [a drought-resistant seed] in Kansas, you would launch it similarly in Nairobi”—although in practice Africa and other poor places that are short of water will have to wait a while longer.

Over the past three years, the firm has started to play a leading role in efforts collectively described as an attempt to create a “green revolution in Africa”. Mr Grant talks enthusiastically about his friendship with Norman Borlaug, the driving force behind the Green Revolution, first in Mexico, then in Asia, in the second half of the past century, which is generally reckoned to have saved at least 1 billion lives. Shortly before his death this year, aged 95, Borlaug reportedly expressed regret that he would not live to see the “gene revolution”.

In white corn, a staple in Africa and Mexico, Monsanto has donated all its intellectual property, seed and know-how for developing drought-tolerant genes to Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), a public-private partnership that has received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the foundation of Howard Buffett, an Illinois farmer (and son of Warren Buffett). The five countries to benefit are Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Mr Grant expects to launch drought-tolerant corn in Africa within two or three years of the launch in America. The company is also working with Millennium Villages, an anti-poverty project led by Jeffrey Sachs, an economist at Columbia University.

In contrast to the anti-retroviral drugs that pharmaceutical companies sell in Africa, this product will generate no royalties for Monsanto, says Mr Grant. “The buzzword is the ‘democratisation of technology’ and we have learnt from Big Pharma the dangers of being too slow,” says Mr Grant. The fact that seeds suited to one place do not necessarily grow well elsewhere greatly reduces the risk of parallel imports that affected the drugmakers. They feared that drugs given away in Africa would be shipped back to rich countries, undermining their business there.

That said, he does not believe that Monsanto could or should be expected to solve this problem on its own. “We studied what Borlaug did, which was work with local NGOs, tapped research institutes, brought disparate groups together. The new piece today is getting big companies involved, which hopefully means we can get this done much faster than Borlaug did.”

Mr Grant nonetheless regards this approach as “good business”, not least because the developing world will be a huge source of future growth for the firm. Monsanto sells more GM cotton in India than in America. Already, most of the countries where GM seed is sown are emerging ones. Around 90% of the world’s 12m farmers with at least a hectare planted with GM seed are smallholders in developing countries. America has 250,000-300,000 active farmers; India has 15m cotton farmers alone, several million of whom Monsanto says it has reached already.

This reinforces the firm’s fundamental message, that it is a driving force for higher farm productivity—and that higher productivity, not a return to the methods of the past, is likely to be the true source of agricultural sustainability. In America, GM seed has already brought about huge increases in productivity, says Mr Grant. He has no time for the “Malthusian thing about running out of food. This is eminently solvable.” He sees huge potential in merely raising yields in the rest of the world to levels already achieved in America thanks to better farming practices, Roundup and improved seed productivity. American farmers average about 160 bushels (of 56lb, or 25.5kg) of corn per acre per year, against 60 in Brazil and 27 in sub-Saharan Africa (22 excluding South Africa).

Moreover, even in America there is the potential to double yields again. Already, farmers in Iowa are producing as many as 200 bushels an acre. Mr Grant believes that 300 bushels are achievable by 2030. “We have just scratched the surface,” he says, pointing out that after the first GM crops came on the market in 1996, it took ten years for 1 billion acres to be planted. But the second billion took only another three years. “We are where transistors were in the 1970s.”

The Economist

Zimbabwe launches inputs subsidy

The Zimbabwe government has established a farming inputs subsidy scheme that will see a 50kg bag of fertilizer selling for US$7 while maize and sorghum seed will both be available at less than US$1 per kg.

The subsidy will benefit communal, A1, old resettlement and small-scale farmers who did not get any inputs under the Government and Food and Agriculture Organisation-run support scheme.
However, limits will be placed on the quantities an individual can buy.

Grain Marketing Board communications manager Mrs Muriel Zemura said the subsidised inputs were already available at their countrywide depot network.

"Farmers under Category A are communal and they will buy a maximum of 50kg of Compound D and ammonium nitrate fertilizers and 10kg of maize seed or 5kg of sorghum seed," she said.

Category B covers of A1, old resettlement and small-scale farmers who will buy a maximum of 150kg of compound D, 100kg of ammonium nitrate, and 20kg of maize seed or 5kg of sorghum seed at the subsidised prices.

Mrs Zemura said the 50kg bag of fertilizer costs US$7, maize seed had been pegged at 52 US cents a kg, with sorghum seed going for 30 US cents a kg.

It is understood that the subsidy came into being after protracted inter-ministerial negotiations over the past weeks. Sources said the Ministry of Agriculture had "fought a huge battle to get Treasury to release the money for the subsidy." The sources said the matter was finalised following a meeting between Agriculture Minister Joseph Made and Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

The Government-FAO Smallholder Emergency Support Programme brings together 16 donors and 35 non-governmental organisations.

Of the 1 301 988 national communal households, 691 686 households are to receive inputs in the form of seeds, fertilizers and extension assistance from the 35 organisations who received funding from donors.

Distribution of the inputs under the FAO programme is underway in most parts of the country.
Committees at national, provincial, district and ward/village level will oversee the distribution of inputs. Targeted households include those headed by children, women, the elderly, the disabled or the chronically-ill in communal and old resettlement areas.

US$70 million was raised towards this end out of a targeted US$142,52 million. Coverage of the programme in provinces ranges from 41 percent to 65 percent while the national average is 53 percent.

The 2009/10 summer cropping season has also seen the Government mobilising US$210 million for inputs.

Meanwhile, a local seed producer has said it has dispatched seed to GMB depots under Government’s US$210 million scheme.

Pioneer Seeds national sales manager Mr Manasa David Makasi said his company had sent 2 121 tonnes of maize seed to GMB depots in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Midlands and Masvingo provinces.

"We want to ensure that farmers get the correct varieties for their agro-ecological regions," he said.

The Herald

Zimbabwe police confiscate counterfeit maize seed

Zimbabwean police have recovered six tonnes of fake maize seed at a house in Tynwald, Harare, where it was being made in a makeshift factory and arrested one suspect.

The green-coloured fake seed was in 10kg and 50kg packs labelled "Seed Co,"the brand of a leading seed house. Some of the seed was being sold in shops in Harare. It is believed that the ring behind the scam was colouring ordinary maize with green material to make it look like genuine seed.

At the time of writing, it could not be ascertained as to how much fake seed made its way from the makeshift factory at the Tynwald house onto the streets and shops before police busted the ring. 800kg of the fake seed had been taken to Harare Central Police Station with the rest remaining at the house under police guard. Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau confirmed the arrest and said investigations were underway.

The matter came to light when two women who had bought 20kg of the fake seed from a shop along Charter Road in the city centre became suspicious after closely examining the seed.

They made a police report and investigations led authorities, including Seed Co officials, to the Tynwald house. A police raid netted six tonnes of fake maize seed that was being "processed" leading to the arrest of one suspect.

Deputy police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka urged farmers to be wary of criminals selling fake seed. "It would appear that as we are in the farming season, there are some criminal elements pouncing on innocent farmers," said Chief Supt Mandipaka.

He urged farmers to buy their seed and any other inputs from reputable outlets and check both the packaging and quality of seed to avoid being duped.

"Buying fake seed will affect the agricultural sector in that yields will be compromised at the end of the day," said Chief Supt Mandipaka. He said the busy Mbare Musika was most likely to prove popular with sellers of fake seed. In recent years, several reports of conmen selling fake seed and fertilizers at Mbare Musika have been recorded.

Police said they were on the lookout for people selling the fake products.

The latest incident comes on the back of reports of a maize seed deficit for the 2009/10 cropping season. Of the 35 000 tonnes needed for optimum production on a national scale, 20 000 tonnes have been produced locally while the remainder would have to be imported. This has seen many retailers importing seed primarily from South Africa.

Farmers have largely not been able to purchase seed in meaningful quantities because they do not have money.

The Herald

International seed bank collects 10% of world's wild plants

by Rebecca Morelle

An international seed bank has reached its target of collecting 10% of the world's wild plants, with seeds of a pink banana among its latest entries.

The wild banana, Musa itinerans, is a favourite of wild Asian elephants. Seeds from the plant, which is under threat from agriculture, join 1.7 billion already stored by Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership.

The project has been described as an "insurance strategy" against future biodiversity losses. The seed bank partnership, which involves more than 120 organisations in 54 countries, is now aiming to collect and conserve seeds from a quarter of the Earth's flowering plant species by 2020.

All the seeds are kept both in their country of origin and in Royal Botanic Gardens Kew's premises at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex, where they are stored in underground vaults that are kept at -20C. The plant material is dried, cleaned and sorted, ensuring only the finest specimens make it into the giant freezers. There, the cold and arid conditions keep the seeds in pristine condition for anywhere between a few years to thousands of years, depending on the species.

The aim is that each seed stored in the bank can be regrown, should the need arise.

The wild banana plant from China was selected as the "10% species" by the bank's international collaborators because it fulfilled a number of conservation criteria.

Janet Terry, the seed processing manager at the bank, said: "It was chosen because it is representative of what the whole project is all about - it is endemic, endangered and it is an economic species.

"And of course, everybody loves a banana."

Musa itinerans becomes the 24,200th species to have been stored in the seed bank.

The 10% target was set when the Wakehurst Place facility was completed in 2000. At that time, it was estimated that there were 242,000 plant species in the world, although more recently it is thought that there might be 300,000.

Professor Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said, "In the next phase, we want to secure another 15%, so by 2020 we will have a quarter of the world's seeds banked in both the country of origin and Wakehurst Place. And a major focus is going to be a considerable expansion in the sustainable use of seeds for human benefit."

The researchers will be focusing on food security, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Professor Hopper added: "The thing that has changed over this 10-year period is a much more acute awareness of climate change as a threatening process, as well as the many others that impact on plant life.

"And the seed bank, as an insurance strategy, is a good sensible way of keeping your options open for the future."

BBC

EU gives 15.4 million euros for seed, fertilizer to Zimbabwean farmers

by Nelson Banya

The European Union is providing seed and fertiliser worth 15.4 million euros ($22.73 million) to small-scale Zimbabwean farmers to boost grain production, an EU diplomat said.

The EU, which maintains sanctions against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle over charges of human rights abuses and electoral fraud, remains one of the country’s largest donors, giving more than 510 million euros since 2002.

Mugabe and long-term rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government in February to try to end a political and economic crisis, largely blamed on Mugabe’s drive to seize land from whites to resettle landless blacks.

Once a breadbasket of the region, Zimbabwe’s farming sector has collapsed.

The head of the European Commission in Zimbabwe, Xavier Marchal, told a meeting of agricultural experts and donors assessing the preparations for the farming season that the EU facility was aimed at improving household food security.

“The EC, on behalf of the EU, has signed an agreement with FAO (the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation), which will provide 15.4 million euros to support self-reliance at smallholder farmer level in Zimbabwe,” Marchal said.

“This programme is part of a wider EC policy aiming at moving this country from food aid to food security.”

When food shortages were at their peak in 2008, aid organisations were feeding about 7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population.

The EU facility is part of a $74 million fund created by donors, including the World Bank and Britain’s Department for International Development, to support up to 700,000 small-scale farmers. The donors’ project is expected to produce about 450,000 tonnes of the staple maize grain and meet a quarter of Zimbabwe’s annual requirements.

The government has forecast total maize output at up to 2.5 million tonnes, more than last year’s production, but farmers’ unions doubt the projection, citing input shortages and poor preparations.

Marchal said the EU would increase direct assistance to Zimbabwe once talks launched by Tsvangirai in Brussels in June were successfully concluded.

“But more importantly, government has to take its responsibilities. The decline in agricultural production is indeed related to issues relating to the way the land and agrarian reform programme has been conducted,” he said.

Reuters