Agro Perspectiva

Continued Demand Makes Monsanto and Agriculture Unique Investment Opportunities, Global Seeds and Traits Lead to Tell Investors

18.03.2010 11:51 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — As world population growth and dietary shifts continue, Monsanto Company’s (NYSE: MON) ongoing investment in agriculture is bringing more choices to the farm than ever before, Brett Begemann, executive vice president — seeds and traits, will tell investors today at the Nomura Global Chemical Leaders Conference in Dublin. Those choices will help farmers around the world meet growing global demand for grain. «Given the projections for global population growth and increasing dietary demands, the case stands to either grow more food on more acres or increase yields on the same acreage to meet the increased need for grain,» Begemann will say. «With limited arable land, this future demand must be met through improvements in yield per acre. Simply put, the world is going to need to produce more with less, and that’s what we help farmers do.» Begemann will discuss Monsanto’s target of helping farmers double 2000 yields in corn and soybeans by 2030 through technology, which has driven Monsanto’s investment in biotechnology and breeding. «Combined with the germplasm libraries and molecular markers Monsanto has developed, this has equipped the company with the tools to deliver the highest-yielding, best-performing seed,» Begemann will say. In the company’s current commercial line up, Monsanto has the industry’s most complete product portfolio, offering farmers a choice of compelling next-generation technologies. In corn, Monsanto is unique in its ability to offer three different trait packages with reduced-refuge requirements that allow farmers to minimize the planting of structured refuges. Headlined by Genuity™ SmartStax™, the most comprehensive grower-protection package available on the market, the portfolio also includes Genuity™ VT Double PRO™, the industry’s only above-ground stack with a 5 percent refuge and Genuity™ VT Triple PRO™, the only triple-stack product with reduced refuge for the South. Within the commercial portfolio, Begemann also will discuss Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybeans, which will become a platform for expanded offerings in both the United States and Brazil as the commercial portfolio grows with new trait introductions through this decade. Begemann will touch on new traits in the pipeline that are expected to be introduced to the Genuity™ SmartStax™ corn and Genuity™ Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybean platforms. The story is similar for cotton, Begemann will say, where the company’s unprecedented investment in breeding has brought forth the best line-up in cotton genetics available. «When you take it all into consideration — the increase in global demand, our history of product performance and innovation and the continued growth of agricultural biotech — I feel very good about our outlook and the outlook for the world’s farmers to meet the challenge of feeding a growing population,» Begemann will say.