New GM soya bean cultivars ready for planting

Bayer officially launched its new soya bean technology, Intacta RR2 Pro, during a recent event in Johannesburg.

Various seed companies have already incorporated these genetics into their soya bean cultivars and a large number of initial trials have been completed.

“These cultivars should be ready for commercial planting during the 2022/23 planting season,”

Dr Klaus Eckstein, CEO of Bayer South Africa, said at the launch.

In Brazil, farmers had seen a 33% yield increase when they started using this technology in 2016.

“The average yield increased from 2,7t/ha to 3,6t/ha. The Intacta RR2 Pro had a 90% market penetration within five years. We hope to see similar results in South Africa,” Eckstein said.

According to Corné Louw, senior economist at Grain SA, the Intacta RR2 Pro was just one example of new soya bean technology that had arrived in South Africa since the implementation of the soya bean levy in 2018, which had been administrated by the South African Cultivar and Technology Agency ever since.

“Fifty-two new soya bean cultivars have been registered since the inception of this levy, and we’ve seen soya bean seed prices drop by 7%,” Louw told Farmer’s Weekly.

The technology that Bayer introduced was Roundup Ready, enabling it to be sprayed with glyphosate. It was also resistant to African bollworm ( Helicoverpa armigera), which meant that farmers could produce higher yields of soya bean while using fewer inputs, a Bayer statement said. However, due to the bollworm technology “built into the seed”, farmers would have to plant a 20% refuge area. This implied that one-fifth of the total crop needed to be conventional soya bean to ensure that bollworms did not build up resistance to the new technology.

This was an area of concern for some seed company representatives attending the launch, as they feared that farmers would keep seed back for planting during the following season.

However, Louw said this was one of the issues that was currently being discussed during a review of legislation pertaining to plant breeding technology.

“Farmers have the right to hold seed back, but with that right comes the responsibility to protect the technology by planting a refuge area.” – Susan Marais