2012
LOGA
N COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE. LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com October 23, 2012
12
“
Hybrids saved us”
by John Fulton
Corn hybrid technology advancements
T
here have been great
improvements in crop
production inputs over the
last few decades.
Notable among them have been the
genetically modified organism, or GMO,
traits involved in commercial
crops. The introduction of
other plant traits into crops,
in addition to the traditional
selection
breeding
programs, has produced
crops that are resistant
to insects, resistant to
diseases, tolerate drought
conditions better and even
can provide for human
immunization against some
diseases.
Companies investing in the
research end of modification generally
sell products, and that was their first
focus. We now have crops tolerant to
pesticide applications, providing for less
pesticide use per acre. In many cases
with the insect control modifications, no
pesticide is used for control, but rather
naturally occurring proteins develop
within the plants to control the insects.
In the case of drought tolerance, some
hybrids are combinations of standard
breeding and genetic modification. In other
hybrids, it is only by selective breeding.
A benefit to the genetic modification
process is that it generally speeds
up the production cycle by several
years since the trait is introduced
immediately, rather than sought
through several years.
The basis behind a plant’s
drought tolerance is to reduce the
size of the stomata, the pores in
the leaf surface that regulate gas
and water vapor exchange. Drought
is caused by external factors, and
no one thing can make corn drought-
tolerant.
I say “drought-tolerant” instead of
“
resistant,” because no corn plant can
grow without water. Plants that manage
water better or are more efficient in getting
moisture from the soil will perform better
when water is scarce.
Other natural selection traitsbeingworked