Insight: Hybrid wheat hitting U.S. fields as war, climate threaten global food supplies

Bioceres Crop Solutions

21/12/2022 11:00

By Tom Polansek and Julie Ingwersen
       CHICAGO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Global seed maker Syngenta
will release a new type of wheat developed with complex
cross-breeding techniques in the United States next year,
beating out rival companies that are also trying to develop
higher yielding wheat at a time of diminishing global grain
supplies.
    The hybrid wheat, which combines positive traits from two
parent plants, arrives after severe weather slashed grain
harvests and the Ukraine war disrupted shipments to hungry
importers, sending prices  Wc1  to record highs this spring.
    Syngenta, which began working on hybrid wheat in 2010, told
Reuters enough seeds will be on the market next year for U.S.
farmers to plant about 5,000 to 7,000 acres. 
    Though a tiny fraction of the nation's plantings, the
previously unreported total represents the company's biggest
ever release of hybrid wheat. It could open the door for larger
seedings in 2024 and beyond, as war and climate change make the
world's food supplies increasingly vulnerable. 
    Growers of corn and other crops like barley have long
benefited from hybrid seeds boosting yields. The road to market
has been extra slow for wheat because the development process is
more costly and difficult, and companies saw lower potential for
returns, researchers said.
    Benefits of the new crop are still not certain. Three
independent seed companies that produced hybrid wheat this year
under agreements with Syngenta told Reuters they were unsure the
crop will deliver game-changing results for growers. They added
that it will take longer to determine how to cost effectively
produce the best seeds.
    Syngenta's French unit told Reuters the company postponed
the launch of a similar type of wheat tested in France following
disappointing results. The U.S. and French hybrids were tailored
for local growing conditions, which can include threats from
plant diseases and the need to meet quality standards for
milling and baking, the company said.   
    Chinese-owned Syngenta said its U.S. wheat, to be sold under
the AgriPro brand, could increase yields by as much as 12% to
15% and make crops more stable, adding that it is attracting
strong interest from farmers. 
    Wheat "is the only major food crop that has not yet
benefited from significant technification. Hybrids will change
this," said Jon Rich, Syngenta Seeds' head of North America
cereals operations.
    NEARLY 100 YEARS
    Farmers have used hybrid seeds since the 1930s to grow corn,
followed by other crops ranging from peanuts to tomatoes. Hybrid
corn helped U.S. yields climb from 20 bushels per acre in 1930
to 140 bushels by the mid-1990s. By 1960, 95% of U.S. corn acres
were planted with hybrid seed.
    "Corn is really easy to do," said Charlie Vogel, chief
executive officer of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers.
"It's really hard with wheat so you need ideal conditions for
the seeding."
    Other major global seed companies including Bayer AG
 BAYGn.DE  and BASF SE  BASFn.DE  are developing hybrid wheat
but are several years behind Syngenta. Unlike genetic
modification, crop hybridization has not caused controversy
among consumers. While widely used in soy and corn crops fed to
livestock, changing plant genes has long been taboo for wheat
that is made into bread and pasta. 
    Even so, Argentine startup Bioceres  BIOX.O  has gained
varying levels of approvals for drought-resistant genetically
modified wheat in Brazil, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand,
betting on rising consumer acceptance as the world struggles to
feed a growing population faced with increasingly severe
weather.
    Producing hybrid wheat seeds is still more complicated and
expensive than conventional wheat. That means farmers who plant
the crop must see significantly improved harvests to justify
higher seed prices, seed producers said. 
    Harvests must also improve enough to convince farmers to buy
new hybrid seeds each year, instead of saving wheat from
previous harvests as many do with conventional seeds,
researchers said.  
    In Park River, North Dakota, Hankey Seed Company grew
Syngenta's hybrid wheat seeds on 30 acres and also produced the
crop for grain on 80 acres as a test for future customers, owner
Dave Hankey said. He planted the wheat grown for grain on his
best soil and said it produced his best yield.
    "It will be considerably more expensive and I probably don't
have real good data to show that it will be worth the extra
expense," Hankey said. 
    Hybrid wheat can produce more uniform results across fields
than conventional wheat, and may deliver better yields on poor
soil, Hankey said. He declined to talk specifics due to a
nondisclosure agreement with Syngenta.
    To produce hybrid seeds, Hankey said he planted a mixture of
male and female plants in his fields and then surrounded them
with a border of male plants to ensure their pollen was the only
pollen available to the females.
    Hankey even hired a crop duster to fly over half of his 30
acres to test whether the plane would move more pollen around in
the air and improve fertilization. He said he did not notice a
difference. 
    "You just plain need the right, light wind - not too much,
not too little - for that pollen to waft across right at the
time when the female plant is opened up ready to receive it,"
said Kevin Capistran, co-owner of Capistran Seed Company in
Minnesota who also produced Syngenta's hybrid wheat seeds.
    Another company, Noeske Seed Farm in Valley City, North
Dakota, said it grew 80 acres of Syngenta's hybrid wheat for
grain. Yields were unremarkable, though the crop was planted
late due to excessive rains, a representative said.
    "EVERYONE IS WORKING ON IT"
    The U.S. farmers who grow hybrid wheat next year will
connect directly with Syngenta Seeds to provide crop data the
company will use to improve subsequent hybrids, ahead of a full
commercial launch in 2024, Syngenta said. Farmers will receive a
discount on seeds to encourage feedback, the company said.
    "We understand the uncertainty that some farmers may have,
especially when the industry has attempted to make hybrid wheat
viable in decades past," Syngenta's Rich said. 
    Syngenta projected in 2015 that its annual sales of hybrid
wheat seeds could potentially reach $3 billion by 2032. It
declined to provide an updated forecast.
    Syngenta's French unit said it hopes to market a variety of
hybrid wheat in France in 2025, after its first hybrids there
failed to reach yield targets in trials during a hot, dry year.
The company said that while the first hybrids "matched the best
results on the market, we need to go beyond that."
    The world's wheat stockpile is projected to shrink to a mere
98-day inventory by the end of the 2022/2023 marketing year, the
lowest in eight years, according to U.S. government data. 
    Germany's BASF plans to launch hybrid wheat seeds, known as
Ideltis, in Europe, the United States and Canada in the second
half of the decade, said Peter Eckes, president of research and
development for BASF Agricultural Solutions.
    Bayer, meanwhile, said its hybrid wheat will also be
released "by the later part of this decade," and that it has
seen yield increases of about 15% or more in trials. The company
ramped up development work over the last three years and the
Ukraine crisis has amplified supply concerns, said Frank
Terhorst, Bayer Crop Science's head of strategy and
sustainability. 
    "Hybrid wheat has been a dream of seed developers since the
1950s," said Claude Tabel, former president of French seed
makers association UFS. "Everyone is working on it."   
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EXPLAINER-How hybrid wheat could lead to more food without GMO
fears     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N32Z2RN
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 (Reporting by Tom Polansek and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago.
Additional reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Gus Trompiz in
Paris; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Claudia Parsons)
 ((Thomas.Polansek@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/tpolansek))