Northwest growers monitoring drought-tolerant wheat
Genetically modified trait recently deregulated by government, but won’t be commercially available for a few years
Pacific Northwest wheat growers are monitoring a new development from the U.S. government that could have a significant effect on the wheat industry.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in August that it is deregulating the drought-tolerant HB4 trait in wheat.
Casey Chumrau, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, said this is the first genetically modified (GM) trait deregulated in the country.
“There’s never been a GM trait anywhere in the world in a commercially released wheat variety,” she said.
This opens the door for this drought-tolerant trait to be integrated into U.S. varieties, she said.
That will take time, though. According to a statement from wheat commissions of Idaho, Oregon and Washington, it will still be at least three to five years before wheat with this trait is commercially grown because the “scientific process is lengthy.”
If it is grown, Chumrau said this variety could stabilize production in regions of the U.S. that are experiencing yearslong droughts.
She said it will likely be less common in the Northwest where there is higher rainfall and irrigation. However, local growers are still tracking its development.
“It’s something that we as a region are monitoring,” Chumrau said.
Before growers make any decision regarding this drought-tolerant variety, she said, they must first listen to the needs of their customers. Washington, for example, exports 90% of its wheat, and its customers may not be interested in a genetically modified variety.
“We have seen quite a bit of resistance or hesitation from some of our key markets overseas,” she said.
The statement from the PNW commissions emphasized there is no genetically modified wheat currently being cultivated in the U.S.
According to the news release, HB4 wheat is a transgenic wheat trait owned and sold by the Argentine company, Bioceres Crop Solutions. The trait incorporates drought tolerance transferred through a sunflower gene. According to results reported by the company in the drought conditions experienced by Argentina in 2022, HB4 wheat demonstrated up to a 43% yield improvement in targeted environments.
Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
