Transgenic corn fully developed in Brazil is presented by Embrapa

At the turn of the month, the first transgenic corn fully developed in Brazil was presented by Embrapa and Helix, a company of the Agroceres group. the transgenic event BTMAX it is the result of a 100% national public-private partnership.

With laboratory and field results conducted in regions relevant to the agribusiness of corn in Brazil, BTMAX was as efficient as the best existing technology on the market and did not show any damage to the leaves or the plant cartridge.

“Even in regions with high fall armyworm pressure, as was the case in Rondonopolisin the state of Mato Grossowas perhaps the most impactful for the team’s decision-making”, explains Cesar Moisés Camilo, researcher at Helix.

Still according to the researcher, even with the dilution of the BTMAX corn leaf in an artificial diet 25 times, 70% of the caterpillars were dead in seven days.

At the end of 14 days, BTMAX eliminated 99% of the caterpillars, with the remaining 1% not completing the cycle, “a very important point for managing protein resistance”, reinforces the Helix researcher.

“The BTMAX corn does not show cross-resistance with the proteins present in commercial events that already show a drop in resistance”, reiterates Cesar Camilo.

With the unanimous approval of the event by CTNBio, a world reference in technical excellence, in June this year, the deregulation process was initiated in other countries.

There is still no forecast for the commercial launch of the technology, which depends a lot on the regulatory part. It is approved in Brazil, but as it is in the export chain, more approvals are still needed, comments Urbano Ribeiral Júnior, financial director of the Agroceres group.

(With Embrapa)