In early March, Monsanto unveiled its plans to introduce triple-mode-of-action herbicide tolerant technology into the cotton market. The company hopes to introduce the technology, known as Bollgard II XtendFlex, into cotton by the 2015 growing season. This timeline is contingent, however, on federal registration of the technology and its accompanying herbicide products.
As part of the approval process for any new agriculture technology, USDA considers public input in its decision making. The federal group values input from the various voices of rural America and others in the agriculture community when, in this case, weighing whether or not to deregulate cotton that is tolerant to dicamba and glufosinate, in addition to glyphosate.
Monsanto is encouraging cotton producers and other agriculture professionals to take part in this process, in hopes that they will voice their support of the new technology.
“Part of this deregulation process is a public comment period, where USDA opens a website where interested folks could go online and state their case of support for the technology, and why its valuable to them, and why they want to see deregulation of that technology to be available for commercial sale,” says Jordan Iverson, Monsanto cotton traits marketing manager.
Cotton industry professionals and weed experts have voiced their opinion that a new mode of action, such as dicamba tolerant technology, is needed in cotton production to protect against the further development of herbicide resistance.
Monsanto has developed a website to assist those interested in participating in the public comment process. Those interested are encouraged to visit www.roundupreadyplus.com/supportdicamba/cotton to develop a comment and find out more about comment submission.
The deadline for all comments to be received is April 29, 2013.