Drought Doesn’t Discriminate Despite the frequent battle with drought faced by its farmers, South Africa has rejected adoption of a drought-tolerant maize claiming it is no better than conventional seed. However, there are several pertinent factors that require attention in any such analysis, including the fact that yield is only one attribute differentiating biotech crops. The vast majority of the world’s farmland does not involve biotech crops. Most biotech crops are corn and soybeans grown predominantly in the USA, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. There are many factors besides genetics that affect yield, including soil types, nutrients, seeding practices, endemic threats and plant protection, plus weather. The countries...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.