Crop Tech Corner

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) -- This bi-monthly column condenses the latest news in the field of crop technology, research and products.

MORE TIME TO COMMENT ON GENE-EDITED PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Now is the time to voice your opinion on gene-edited plants and animals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended a comment period on the safety of food produced by gene-editing techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9. (See a DTN story on gene editing here: http://bit.ly/…). There are no endless documents to sort through or risk assessments to read just yet. The FDA is simply putting out a request for expert and consumer opinions on the safety and future regulation of food with ingredients from gene-edited plants.

The FDA has also released a draft guidance detailing how the agency would regulate future gene-edited animals. At this time, the gene-edited food posting has generated around 300 comments, and the gene-edited animal guidance has received more than 800. The American Soybean Association is urging farmers and ranchers, who will be on the front lines of growing and raising gene-edited plants and animals, to make their voices heard. Both dockets are open for comment until June 19.

Read and comment on the gene-edited food proposal here: http://bit.ly/…. Read the gene-edited animal guidance here: http://bit.ly/…, and comment on it here: http://bit.ly/…. See ASA's release here: http://bit.ly/….

NEMATICIDE SEED TREATMENT HEADED TO FIELDS IN 2018

Monsanto has announced that it will make a nematicide seed treatment available for corn, soybean and cotton growers in 2018. The product, called NemaStrike, contains a new active ingredient called tioxazafen. EPA has recently registered tioxazafen, and the company is now awaiting state approvals before it can fully commercialize NemaStrike, said Jared Thomas, manager of Monsanto's seed treatment portfolio in North America.

Nemastrike is a broad spectrum nematicide, which means it targets a wide array of nematodes active in the soil. The new active ingredient "involves a disruption of ribosomal activity in nematodes," according to its EPA registration. Among its primary targets are the soybean cyst nematode in soybeans, the root-knot, reniform and lance nematode in cotton and up to 30 different corn nematodes, Thomas told DTN. Because the active ingredient grows along the root system of the plant, it should not affect any non-plant-eating nematodes, which can sometimes serve as beneficial predators of other insect pests, he added.

Monsanto is not releasing information on which corn, soybean and cotton seeds in their portfolio will sport the new nematicide in 2018. The company said its internal experiments showed that NemaStrike offered an average per-acre yield increase of 7 bushels in corn, 3 bushels in soybeans and 80 lbs. lint in cotton. However, no independent institutions, such as land-grant universities, have done any testing with NemaStrike yet, Thomas said.

See Monsanto's press release here: http://monsanto.info/…. See the EPA registration of tioxazafen here: http://bit.ly/….

Emily Unglesbee can be reached at emily.unglesbee@dtn.com.

Follow Emily Unglesbee on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee.

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