Seed and ag chem firm Syngenta plans to pile two distinct traits into corn next year for use against corn rootworm, a move meant to extend its traits’ useful life.
The company’s Canadian arm recently announced it will offer two new corn varieties, Agrisure Duracade 5122 and Agrisure Duracade 5222, for the 2014 season. The new corns will both contain Syngenta’s Agrisure RW trait stacked with its new Duracade trait.
“The Duracade trait is the first corn rootworm trait launched with insect resistance management and the preservation of technology durability in mind,” the company said.
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Greg Good, Syngenta Canada’s product lead for corn and soybeans, described the new corns in a press release as “a step change in efficacy for protection against corn rootworm damage.”
Corn rootworms feed on corn plants’ roots, thus stunting plant growth and limiting ear fill by reducing water and nutrient uptake.
The new corns, Syngenta said, will combine elements of both lepidopteran-active and coleopteran-active protein for control of western corn rootworm and northern corn rootworm (both coleopteran).
The new trait stack, it said, carries the corn industry’s first hybrid Bt insect control protein for coleopteran plant pests.
Agrisure Duracade 5122 would combine the Duracade trait with the Agrisure RW trait for two modes of action, plus the Agrisure CB/LL trait for control of corn borer; the Herculex I trait as another mode of action against corn borer and for “broad” control of other lepidopterans; and the Agrisure GT trait, for glyphosate herbicide tolerance.
Agrisure Duracade 5222, meanwhile, is to carry the same traits as 5122 plus the Agrisure Viptera trait, for control of “the multi-pest complex” of lepidopterans.
Syngenta said both 5122 and 5222 will be available pre-blended with Syngenta’s E-Z Refuge, a five per cent refuge-in-the-bag, meant also to hinder pests from developing resistance to the insect control traits.
