Drought Resistant Corn: Helpful Development or Too Good to be True?

Drought resistant corn might have come in handy last year. For some, this might become a reality in 2012.

Developing corn to be able to produce with less water has been in the works for a while now. Monsanto first sought approval of its drought-resistant corn in February 2009. 

On Dec. 21, 2011, Monsanto announced it received deregulation from the USDA for its drought-resistant corn, MON 87460, and will be conducting on-farm trials of the seed on farms in the Western Great Plains.

Will this be the answer to all our prayers, or is it too good to be true? Some say the latter is the proper sentiment.

The Union of Concerned Scientists says “The company and the USDA have both admitted the crop will fare only modestly better than current conventional varieties under low- and moderate-level drought conditions. This means that this corn will be useful only for a fraction of corn acres- just 15 percent by USDA estimates.”

Of course, the Union of Concerned Scientists probably doesn’t like much of anything Monsanto does, or anything involving genetic modification.

Still, the idea that corn, one of the most produced crops in the U.S., could be produced with less water is a good one. Less input for more output is economically sound, and let’s face it: we need to be able to produce more with fewer resources.

Monsanto says the areas best affected by this drought-tolerant seed will be the Plains region (where ¼ of corn is produced in U.S.), and similar areas in Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how well it is received and how it produces.