Syngenta sets field trials for new GM corn

The “Super Jumbo” genetically modified (GM) corn, resistant to corn borer and other sucking insects, will undergo field trials by the second semester as it is seen to be commercialized by Switzerland-based Syngenta by late 2012.

Registered as NK 8840 with the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC), the multi-strength GM Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn should benefit farmers with an estimated high yield of 10 to 14 metric tons (MT) per hectare.

"We will have field trials in the third and fourth quarter of the year. We are set to commercialize it by late 2012,” said Recher Ondap, Syngenta Philippines country head for seeds, in an interview.

The GM corn variety is also herbicide tolerant (can survive amid herbicide spraying).

It is suitable in Luzon and Mindanao and is early-maturing at 105 days in the dry season and 101 days in the wet season. NSIC documents show this GM corn is highly-adapted to prevailing agro-climatic conditions in major corn growing areas in the country and performs well in both the dry and wet season.

It has has tolerance to lodging and has excellent earfill characteristics. Ondap claims the corn variety obtains extra protection from pest infestation as seeds are treated with Cruiser.

The NSIC records also show it has intermediate resistance (restricts growth of pests) to whiteheads, green leafhopper, yellow stemborer, and brown planthoppers 1to 3.

While 80 percent of Syngenta’s business in the Philippines involves corn seeds and largely crop protection products, the company has also aggressively pursued the commercialization of high-yielding hybrid rice seeds and of hybrid upland vegetables.

A little late in the hybrid rice seed sector in the country, the company is releasing up to 2011 hybrid rice varieties moderately resistant to bacterial leaf blight and sheath blight (BLB-SB). The hybrid rice varieties are undergoing accreditation with the NSIC.

"Farmers don’t plant hybrids in the wet season because hybrids are weak on bacterial leaf blight and sheath blight. But they can plant these hybrids in the wet season,” Ondap said.

The rice varieties had gone through field trials in Cabanatuan and San Jose in Nueva Ecija and in Mindanao Hagonoy, Davao del Sur.

Ondap said these varieties give a yield of at least seven metric tons (MT) per hectare, higher than check variety NSIC 82, an inbred whose yield is at 6 to 6.5 MT per hectare.

Syngenta Country Manager for Crop Protection Jose Valmayor said the company sees a huge potential for hybrid rice growth in the Philippines as hybrid rice average yield in the country is just at 3.8 MT per hectare.

This is still much lower than rice average yield in Indonesia at 4.5 MT per hectare and Vietnam, 4.3 MT per hectare. Only Thailand, which has vast tracts of plains, has a lower 2.3 MT per hectare rice yield in the region, he said.