Genetically modified crops that are drought resistant will be grown by
farmers within four to five years, according to scientists developing the
technology.
Dr David Dennis, the chief executive of Performance Plants Incorporated in
Kingston, Ontario, said varieties of drought-tolerant oilseed rape and maize
were already being tested in field trials in the US. He claimed the new
varieties can increase yield by 40% when the plants are most water-stressed.

Climate scientists predict that global warming will make arable land in many
developing countries less productive or unusable. Advocates of GM crops
often defend the technology by arguing that drought and salt-tolerant
varieties can play an important role in adapting to global warming.

Last month, the then UK science minister Dr Ian Pearson told the Guardian he
thought the British public would support GM if the industry demonstrated
environmental benefits.

"I think that the public want to see benefits for GM technology for the
consumer, not just for the fertiliser company or the farmer. If GM can
demonstrably provide benefits for people living in sub-Saharan Africa then I
think the public will want to support those as products and want to see them
commercialised," he said.

But GM's opponents counter that drought and salt tolerance always seems to
be just out of reach. "We would take any claims that these crops are just
around the corner with a large pinch of salt because we have heard it all
before," said Claire Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth. So far, almost all GM
varieties available commercially are either tolerant of herbicides or
produce their own pesticide.

She said that companies are using the food crisis and the threat of climate
change as a PR opportunity. "We are seeing a lot more promises, especially
now connected with the food crisis," she said.

Dennis said his company is developing several crops with modifications to
existing genes which result in a variety of different effects. The company
plans to license its technology to major crop companies such as Syngenta and
Pioneer.

Drought-tolerant oilseed rape plants, which have been in field trials in the
American Mid-West, Colorado and California for four years, are at the most
advanced stage. A drought tolerant variety of maize has been tested in field
trials for two years. The company is also working on modifications for more
efficient water use, larger seeds, heat tolerance and increased biomass. The
latter modification is aimed at producing fast-growing material for the
nascent biofuel industry.

Dennis predicted that it would take four to five years of field testing and
clearing regulatory hurdles before the plants can be sold. "You've got to
show that it will work in situ in the field over several years," he said.

One concern is that the plants may cross with wild relatives, potentially
creating a drought-resistant super-weed that becomes impossible to
eradicate. Dennis said that this was a remote possibility because hybrids
between his crop varieties and wild species do not survive well.

"Is there a risk in it? There's risk in everything we do," he said. "I think
the risk is so small I'm not worried about it. But I am worried about what
we do if we don't develop these technologies."

He said the world needed a 21st century version of the "green revolution" to
increase crop yields to feed the projected world population of 9 billion by
2050.

Dennis said his company would also make the technology freely available to
farmers in the developing world. Performance Plants signed an agreement with
Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International - an NGO based in Kenya that
has previously collaborated with Monsanto - which allows them to distribute
the technology without paying licence fees.

"If the technology is used by small farmers we will forgo any royalties. It
will be available to them free of charge," said Dennis. The group is also
beginning work on pursuing similar genetic modifications in local crops such
as sorghum and cassava.

The company identified its target genes by inducing genetic changes in up to
100,000 plants - for example by blasting them with x-rays ? and screening
them for desirable characteristics. Dennis's researchers then select those
plants with the desired characteristics. The drought tolerant varieties have
a mutation that changes the activity of an enzyme called
farnesyltransferase. The modification leads to changes in the way the plant
reacts to a hormone that is involved in its response to low water levels.
"The plant responds to drought a lot faster and more effectively than other
plants," said Dennis.

Oxborrow said she was sceptical that significant drought tolerance could be
achieved with a single gene change. "The reason we haven't seen drought
tolerant crops come to commercial reality so far is because the plant
physiology is much more complicated than the relatively simple technology
around herbicide tolerance and insect resistance," she said. "Plant
scientists are still working out how plants cope with water shortage."
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