World Grain - November 2022 - 26

SOSLAND PUBLISHING
years
The time has come to start
" If the GM wheat got approved internationally, especially
in large wheat-producing countries such as
Australia, the United States, the Black Sea countries
and Europe, then definitely countries in the Middle
East would follow, especially Egypt, as it is a large
producer and consumer of wheat, " he said.
Al-Hazaa noted that Egypt is " focused heavily on
increasing local wheat production, " and that adopting
HB4 wheat for production could be one of the means to
help the country increase its yields.
While HB4's ability to increase yields in drought conditions
are the major attraction for many developing countries,
Steve Mercer, vice president of communications for
USW, said the other side of the coin regarding HB4 wheat
is the potential environmental and sustainability advantages
that it provides regarding less water usage.
" One is the practical benefit for producers to produce
more wheat and the other side is the sustainability arguments,
which could be attractive in developed countries, "
Mercer said.
Herbicide concerns
Although HB4 wheat has received safety approvals
in several countries, environmental groups warn that
commercialization would lead to higher exposure to
glufosinate-ammonium because it is tolerant to the
herbicide.
GRAIN, a Barcelona, Spain-based non-profit organization
that supports small farmers and social movements
in their struggles for community-controlled and
biodiversity-based food systems, said that glufosinateammonium
is " widely questioned and prohibited in
many countries due to its high acute toxicity and its
teratogenic, neurotoxic, genotoxic and cholinesterase
altering effects. "
GRAIN warns that the addition of GM wheat, which
is grown in different parts of the year than most other
GM crops, will lead to year-round exposure to glufosinate-ammonium-based
herbicides.
Trucco said HB4 is resistant to the herbicide glufosinate-ammonium
because in the biotechnological process
Bioceres used a glufosinate-resistant gene as the
selectable marker to be able to distinguish the positive
transformant from the negative transformants.
" So it's an effect of the biotechnological tool used to
achieve drought resistance, " Trucco said. " Unlike with
the first wave of transgenics several years ago whose
main yield differential was directly associated with
the use of the herbicide, HB4 was developed to have
drought resistance as its main characteristic and value.
" While this means that HB4 wheat is tolerant to glufosinate-ammonium,
it does not need to use this herbicide.
Just as with conventional wheat, any other agri26
considering
this step, especially
with the current increase in the
world's population and the
increased demand for grains
and wheat, in particular.
Khalid Al-Hazaa, general manager,
Al-Hazaa Investment Group
cultural herbicide can be applied in the production of
HB4 wheat with no impact on the quality of the wheat.
In fact, at Bioceres, we are working hard to develop
biological herbicides that could in the future be applied
as alternatives to chemical herbicides in seed treatments.
We are actually one of the only companies globally
that develops all categories of biological products
for agriculture: from bio-nutrition and seed genetics, to
biostimulants and bioprotection technology. "
Timing is everything
Other companies, including US-based Monsanto, before
it merged with Bayer, developed GM wheat only
to reverse course due to strong backlash from consumer
groups and tentative regulators. But that was a different
time, when there was plenty of wheat in reserve
and less certainty about the impact of climate change
on crop production.
Today, not only is there more widespread drought
impacting yields and production, but a once-in-a-century
pandemic has caused global supply chain dysfunction
and two of the world's largest wheat producers and
exporters - Russia and Ukraine - are at war, limiting
the amount of grain being produced and shipped from
the Black Sea region.
It's hard to imagine a better environment to be introducing
a high-yielding drought-resistant genetically
modified wheat variety.
" I don't know if it's the best possible timing to be
talking about that kind of trait, but it has to be close, "
Henry said.
This year marks 100 years since the founding of
Sosland Publishing Co., the publisher of World Grain.
To mark the anniversary of a century of providing food
industry professionals timely information, news and
commentary, we are publishing a series of articles to
celebrate the past, present and future of the people and
industry that feed the world.
November 2022 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - November 2022

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