Growers Want More Mutant Gene Cotton
Cathy Bolt
05/22/1999
Australian Financial Review
Page 4
Copyright of John Fairfax Group Pty
Ltd
The cotton industry has applied for a jump of more than 50 per cent in the area allowed to be planted this year to Australia's first commercial transgenic crop ~ a pest-resistant cotton ~ despite mounting public controversy over the merits of genetically-engineered agriculture.
The Australian Cotton Industry Council has requested permission from the National Registration Authority for agriculture and veterinary chemicals for an increase in the area grown to Monsanto Inc's Ingard cotton from 85,000 hectares to 150,000 hectares.
If approved, the increase would lift the the proportion of transgenic cotton to around 30 per cent of Australia's total $1.4 billion cotton crop.
Notably, the industry's target for next season exceeds that sought by Monsanto , which favoured a more modest lift to 130,000 hectares, and reflects concern about increasing insect resistance to conventional pesticides.
Mr Peter Corish, the chairman of Cotton Australia, said the move followed the particularly bad season for pests just completed which had highlighted the breakdown in traditional insect control treatments.
Last season also saw renewed strong criticism of cotton growers over their heavy use of chemicals after unacceptable residues of the cotton pesticide, endosulfan, were detected in beef produced in cotton areas of NSW and Queensland.
''We believe the industry needs this technology more than ever,'' Mr Corish said.
Ingard, which is still the only genetically-engineered crop grown commercially in Australia, has been modified with a bacterial gene causing it to express a protein deadly to the heliothis bug, the target of 80 per cent of the pesticides applied to cotton.
But the crop's performance since the first 63,000 hectares were planted two years ago has been mixed, prompting caution over the rate of expansion.
Mr Corish said results of the third season were still to be analysed,but problems with its efficacy had persisted.
Like the season before, it appeared to have cut overall pesticide applications by about 40 to 50 per cent. However, its performance deteriorated later in the growing season.
''Overall, we are learning how to manage it better,'' he said. ''It's not a silver bullet''.
The performance review for 1997-98 showed Ingard's efficacy varied significantly between plants, within and between paddocks and between regions. Some growers reported reductions in sprays of up to 90 per cent; others less than 25 per cent. On average, Ingard crops received 5.95 sprays compared with 10.38 for conventional cotton.
Mr Corish said the cotton industry was also encouraging Monsanto to fast-track the development of an improved variety with a second pest-resistant gene to improve performance and reduce the chance of insect resistance to the plant.
Ingard, which produces edible cottonseed oil as well as fibre, was one of 20 genetically-modified organisms that were recently approved by the Australia New Zealand Food Authority for use in food.
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