Trials of genetically modified wheat and barley will be extended in South Australia next year, but graingrowers can be assured the research sites are subject to strict regulations to minimise the contamination risk.
The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics has wheat and barley trials at its Glenthorne site in Adelaide's south this year, and will extend them to the Lower North and into Western Australia next year - based on approval from the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
At Glenthorne, the trials are fenced-off in a 50-metre by 50m area, and are growing in a 20m by 20m plot.
ACPFG research fellow Andrew Jacobs said the organisation could not replant GM crops in a plot that had been used within 12 months of its harvest, because a requirement of its licence was that the area was monitored for volunteer plants. The trial plots were moved from one corner to another each year.
Crops at the site had to be hand-sown and hand-harvested because any machinery used would need to go through a massive cleaning process.
At the Glenthorne trial site, there is a 10m monitoring zone around the plot, in which nothing can be allowed to flower, ensuring pollen is not spread. A 200m border around the plot fence is an isolation zone.
"During flowering that zone has to be monitored every two weeks," Dr Jacobs said.
"People have to walk through the entire area to identify any related species of wheat or barley.
"If we find anything, it has to be reported to the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, the federal body that administers the Gene Technology Act through the Gene Technology Regulator."
ACPFG does not commercially release varieties and partners with international companies that have commercialisation resources and expertise.
One of these companies is DuPont, which recently announced that it has extended its long-standing research collaboration with ACPFG.
DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred and ACPFG partnered in 2005 to discover and develop traits to increase drought tolerance and to decrease the need for soil-applied nitrogen fertiliser, as well as to improve overall crop yields in corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, canola, sorghum and barley. The initial five-year collaboration has now been extended until 2015.
"Any commercial release is going to require funding from an international partner with experience and deep pockets, as it costs more than $20 million to satisfy all the regulatory requirements for a commercial release," Dr Jacobs said.
"It takes five to seven years to get to this point (trial stage). If lines were proven to be drought tolerant and we believed they offered a significant advantage to farmers, a commercial partner would need to step in."
Dr Jacobs said any release would need to offer a "significant step forward" for growers.
"It doesn't have to be a yield advantage - it could be through agronomy, like if a farmer could use half the amount of nitrogen," he said.
"With yields we're not looking at a 1-2 per cent increase, we would need a minimum yield increase of 10pc to make it commercially viable, and preferably higher."
Copyright © 2010. Fairfax Media.
