GM wheat retrieves food lost to vagaries of climate

GMO wheat may help solve food crisis, AUSTRALIAN scientist says
04.jul.08
Bloomberg
Aya Takada

Wheat genetically modified to tolerate drought would boost crop yields and may help the world resolve a food crisis, an Australian state researcher has been reported as saying by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg goes on to say that Australia, forecast to be the third-biggest exporter of the grain, is developing a modified wheat that could be released on the global market in five to 10 years, said German Spangenberg, executive director at Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre. Adoption of GMO wheat, not grown commercially by global producers, is inevitable for food security, he said in an interview in Tokyo.

...``To feed the growing population, farmers worldwide will increasingly adopt gene modification technology as crop production is constrained by weather conditions,'' say Bloomberg, quoting Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co.

``Non-GMO crops will become a premium product as they will become less available and more expensive.''

GMO wheat under field trials in Australia's Victoria state contains genes from plants such as corn and moss as well as yeast, Spangenberg said on July 2. Test results show the GMO grain generated a 20 percent gain in yield compared with non-GMO crops under drought stress, he said.

`Significant Increase'
``This is a very significant increase,'' Spangenberg said. ``GM wheat for drought tolerance will be important to sustain agricultural production into the future.''