AgroPages-Corteva awaits release of Conkesta soybeans in China to begin selling in Brazil-Agricultural news

By Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages

Corteva, DowDuPont’s agricultural business, is awaiting the approval of the Conkesta Enlist E3 soybean variety in China, prior to being introduced in the Brazilian market for the 2019/2020 planting season. According to Antônio Cesar Santos, a Corteva researcher, Conkesta Enlist E3 has already been released in Brazil, but needs a positive evaluation from China to begin the process of be produced, since the Chinese are the largest buyers of soybeans from Brazil and throughout the world.

"In Brazil, it has been released for more than a year. It was approved by the National Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) and the CNBS (National Biosafety Council). China is the largest importer of soybeans, and they have an approval system for these proteins. So, Conkesta itself, with BT proteins, would already be approved. But we are depending on the approval of the herbicide tolerance component, which is expected to occur in early 2019," he said.

In this scenario, the researcher points out that the arrival of this new soybean variety may be very important for resistance control since, in addition to insect resistance, the variety is tolerant to three herbicides: glyphosate, ammonium glufosinate and dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Thus, Santos explains that Conkesta differs from the others because it contains two specific proteins, instead of just one.

"They are two insecticidal proteins (cry1Ac and cry1F), where the plant expresses these proteins to control major insects. One of the advantages of Conkesta soy is that by having these proteins, you have control over a greater number of pests, than do products that have only one protein," he says.