In 1996, the Argentine government authorized the country’s first commercial use of a genetically modified seed—Roundup Ready, a soybean variety made by Monsanto that thrives amid applications of the company’s Roundup brand of herbicide.

The introduction helped trigger a boom in Argentine agriculture. Soybean cultivation, stoked by Chinese demand for soy and expanded onto marginal lands thanks to the new transgenic varieties, surged from 10 million tons annually in 1996 to 50 million tons last year. Such has been the growth that soy now accounts for over half of Argentina’s cropland.

In the process, economic analysts agree that soy export earnings, and the tax revenues they generated, played a key role in Argentina’s recovery from economic collapse in 2001-02.

And yet what has been called the “soyization” of Argentine agriculture became a source of worry, too. Even some in the agricultural industry itself have expressed concern about impacts such as the depletion of soil nutrients, the advance of the agricultural frontier into environmentally sensitive areas and the excessive use of agrochemicals.

Strong endorsement

Despite such worries, however, the government of President Cristina Kirchner is giving a strong green light for further use of transgenics in agriculture.

Strong proof came last month, when Kirchner joined a group of scientists to unveil a new type of genetically modified soy that—in addition to being resistant to Roundup herbicide—also does better than conventional soy in dry weather and saline soils.

The presentation came as Argentina begins harvesting a soy crop that because of a recent drought has suffered yield declines of 20% to 40%, prompting the government to invest millions of dollars in subsidies to keep producers afloat.

The drought-resistant soy was developed by a team of scientists from two Argentine government research centers—the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet) and National University of the Littoral (UNL).

It was financed by Bioceres, an Argentine company backed by over 200 large soy producers in the country, and Arcadia Biosciences, a company based in the United States. The two private companies have invested an estimated US$120 million in the development of the seed, which has been patented by a partnership they have formed to market it internationally under the name Verdeca, starting in 2015-16.

The new seed appears to mark an attempt by Argentina to compete in the world biotechnology marketplace with Monsanto—and strengthen government research capability in the process. During the curtain-raising press conference, held Feb. 28, Kirchner said that if the new seed were to displace Roundup Ready in world markets, it would generate royalties of US$2.5 billion a year for Conicet and UNL.

Two days later, addressing Congress, Kirchner spoke of Argentina’s recent drought and said agriculture “can’t just be left in God’s hands in a country where the sector is so important in terms of its volume, its dynamism, its investment, its research and its technology.”

Added Kirchner: “We need to create instruments so that when the producer has problems, it’s not the government, in other words the 40 million Argentines, who must subsidize him.”

Sunflower gene

The new seed was made by introducing a sunflower gene, Hahb-4, into soy, which produced a soy plant more resistant to drought.

“Drought causes a phenomenon known as hydric stress in plants,” says Raquel Chan, a Conicet biochemist who headed the scientific team that developed the new seed. “This is an important problem that has caused million-dollar losses over the years, not only in Argentina, but throughout the world. The solutions in general have focused on artificial irrigation, which is costly and sometimes not applicable, or crossbreeding with varieties that better tolerate these adverse conditions.”

Adds Chan: “For years, we’ve been trying to identify a gene that has an important role in a plant’s adaptation to hydric stress. A plant has tens of thousands of genes, and it’s not so easy to identify which one or ones are responsible for a specific adaptive response. Now we have clear evidence that when the Habh-4 gene is introduced using genetic-engineering techniques in another plant, this [plant] shows greater tolerance to drought.”

The companies involved in the project say the new soy will produce yields 15% greater than Roundup Ready whether or not drought occurs. Environmental advocates for their part, warn of the impacts.

Says Hernán Giardini, coordinator of the Greenpeace forests campaign: “If deforestation is not prohibited in absolute terms, this new transgenic seed will spell the end of the last native forests in the Chaco region, because it will allow soy cultivation in [currently] wooded areas with low rainfall and saline soils, and it would also bring about the arrival of soy in new regions, such as Patagonia.”