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Monsanto, DuPont Race to Win $2.7 Billion Drought-Corn Market
28.04.2010 12:22 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
Lance Russell’s neighbors aren’t used to seeing corn growing in the fields around Hays, Kansas, where the plants tend to wither and keel over in the dry heat. They may be in for a surprise this summer.
Russell is planting DuPont Co.’s drought-tolerant corn, one of the seeds heading to market next year that’s designed to thrive where water is scarce. An experimental plot in 2009 improved on the economics of the sorghum crop «by a landslide,» Russell said.
Monsanto Co., DuPont and Syngenta AG are vying for a similar windfall. After battling for a decade to corner the $11 billion market for insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant technologies, the world’s biggest seed companies are vying to develop crops that can survive drought. At stake is a new global market that may top $2.7 billion for the corn version alone.
«It’s a race at the moment,» said Juergen Reck, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. «They must see market potential.»
The technology will have wide-ranging effects, from helping farmers draw less irrigation water to lowering insurance premiums and boosting land values in drought-prone regions, agricultural economists say. The seeds also may increase corn plantings in the U. S. Great Plains at the expense of wheat and sorghum while altering the market for biofuels.
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