Midwest drought: how engineered corn saved some farmers from disaster

[NickB79]

http://www.minnpost.com/christian-science-monitor/2012/09/midwest-drought-how-engineered-corn-saved-some-farmers-disaster

Sousek isn’t the only one. Across the Corn Belt, farmers have expressed surprise that their corn endured drought as well as it did – much better, they say, than the varieties they planted just a decade or two ago. In Illinois, for example, one estimate suggests that corn farmers will lose one-quarter less of their crop than they did during the 1988 drought – in large part because of the seeds they planted.

Farmers are benefiting from decades of research in plant breeding combined with a growing interest in crops that can better tolerate drought and other stress. Indeed, research has shown that vulnerability to drought is one of the chief limits to crop production around the world. Meanwhile, gene mapping and other innovations have enabled scientists to develop new varieties with much greater speed and precision than before.

The results are startling, and have implications far beyond the the survival of one year’s harvest in the Midwest. In a world of rising temperatures and population, improvements in drought tolerance are especially urgent.

To be clear, it sounds like most of the better survivability was due to using conventionally developed hybrids, not GM crops, at this point.

[Laurajr]

1. isn't most corm GM corn

I think it can be both genically modified and hybrid and if it gm corn I don't care about what is good for the farmers.