Corn Commentary

Drought-Tolerant Corn Gets Closer

Drought-tolerant corn is another step closer to reality.

Monsanto Company announced today that its first-generation drought-tolerant corn has moved into the final R&D phase before market launch. The company also announced that it has submitted the product to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for regulatory clearance.

Officials with Monsanto say this is the fastest that a product has ever advanced from one phase into another.

Drought-tolerant corn technology is just one of the products currently under development as part of Monsanto’s R&D and commercialization collaboration in plant biotechnology with BASF aimed at developing higher-yielding crops and crops more tolerant to adverse environmental conditions such as drought.

Monsanto also announced today that profits for the first quarter of 2009 more than doubled on increased sales of seeds and Roundup herbicide and the company is now raising projections for earnings the rest of the year.