1.Biggest Brazil soy state loses taste for GMO seed
2.GMO maize will cover 15% of the Parana State's farmland
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1.Biggest Brazil soy state loses taste for GMO seed
By Inae Riveras
Reuters, March 13 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/internal_ReutersNewsRoom_BehindTheScenes_MOLT/idUSTRE52C5AB20090313
SORRISO, Brazil - Farmers in Brazil's Mato Grosso, the country's top soy state, are shunning once-heralded, genetically modified soy varieties in favor of conventional seeds after the hi-tech type showed poor yields.
"We're seeing less and less planting of GMO soy around here. It doesn't give consistent performance," said Jeferson Bif, who grows soy and corn on a large 1,800 hectare farm in Ipiranga do Norte, near the key Mato Grosso soy town of Sorriso.
He said he obtained average yields of 58 bags (60 kg) per hectare with conventional soy last season while fields planted with GMO soy in the same year yielded 10 bags less.
Growers began illegally using genetically modified varieties of soy even before Brazil passed a biosafety law around four years ago permitting their use, in the hope of gaining higher yields and reducing production costs.
Around half of Mato Grosso's soy is estimated to be genetically modified but the tide is turning against it.
Part of farmers' disappointment over the performance of the modified soy may stem from misunderstanding of the specific conditions in which its altered characteristics can bring rewards.
Uptake of GMO soy was fast in the state Rio Grande do Sul because of its resistance to glyphosate, which is used to kill the weeds that flourish there. But this feature is much less useful in Mato Grosso, where weeds grow much less thickly.
Farmers in Mato Grosso also benefit from better support from cooperatives and government bodies which provide advice and technical assistance and help them maximize yields even with conventional soy.
Another reason for Mato Grosso's ongoing shift away from GMO-soy is that trading houses and meat processors, conscious that some consumers strive to avoid GMO foods, prefer conventional soy and will pay a premium for it.
Soy is a key component of many cattle feed products.
Alexsander Gheno, agronomist at APAgri consultancy, said GMO soy may have other uses which could indirectly boost yields. By rotating planting of conventional soy with GMO soy, it could help break the cycle of diseases afflicting the crop.
But Gheno said the momentum that GMO crops have gained may see them chase out conventional soy in the long run, even if growers don't prefer the high-tech varieties.
"Companies have been focusing their research on GMO soy more than on conventional ones. So in 10 years we could have 100 percent of the area planted with GMO soy not because this was farmers' choice exactly but because development of new conventional varieties is getting scarce," he said.
(Editing by Peter Murphy and Jim Marshall)
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2.GMO maize will cover 15% of the Parana State's farmland, estimates Seab
by Luana Gomes
Source: Gazeta do Povo, 12 March 2009
[translated by Ralph Miller]
About 15% of Parana's autumn corn crop will be GMO, according to the State's Agriculture Secretary, Valter Bianchini.
"This is a significant part of the second crop's production," he estimates. This is true, as the state government is studying measures to dissuade planting GMO crops for the next seasons, as is already happening with GMO soya. "It is not our intention to hinder GMOs, but to assure the rights of whoever wants to plant conventional seeds”, he said.
According to the Secretary, as this is the first autumn crop for which Bt corn has been allowed, initially the government is only going to monitor GMO crops," especially regarding cross-pollination". "However one must keep in mind the problems of storage and traceability, as well as how to segregate this crop".
According to Bianchini, who is against this technology, industry is already planning on how to stop the advance of GMOs. The idea is to pay conventional corn a bonus, in other words a better and more attractive price, as is already occurring with soya. "The newspapers mention a bonus of about R$0.50 per bag of conventional soya, but it is known that this may go up to R$ 2.00 in some cases," says the Secretary.
According to Bianchini, the State wants to be a national reference in the production of conventional soya and corn, but has to respect other technologies, due to federal legislation. Bt corn argues the Secretary, is a technology legally liberated for the field, but was approved in a hasty manner.
"Environmental and health problems were not addressed in depth", he stated.
The Department of Rural Economy (Deral acronym in Portuguese) of the State Department of Agriculture and Supply (Seab acronym in Portuguese), foresees 1.55 million hectares of corn for the autumn crop in Parana. Last year the State allocated 1.59 million hectares for this crop, but yield, harmed by late frost, was only 3.8 million metric tons. In 2009, with a favorable climate, according to Deral the ParanA harvest will be 12.5% higher, but may reach 6.4 million tons.