Irish man John Hickey (far left), head of corn product design at Bayer Crop Science speaking at the World Seed Congress this week in Lisbon.
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Genome-editing is dream-technology and has a huge upside to achieving the outcomes we want in the short to medium term, according to John Hickey, head of corn design at Bayer Crop Science.
The Roscommon man told the World Seed Congress: “We’ve increased corn yield 6.5-fold in the last 70 years. We can do the same thing in the next 70 years.”
He added that gene-editing technology, which basically speeds up the conventional breeding process, can turn 100 years of breeding into 10 years.
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Gene-editing, he said, “would allow us to have crops that are much more productive and have a much smaller environmental footprint”.
Syngenta CEO Jeff Rowe spoke about having “higher yields with lower impact” by using genetics, gene-editing, chemistry, biological and digital tools. However, he noted that in order to have these tools a science-based regulatory system is needed and this is a challenge. Rowe added that what he hears from farmers is “we keep having innovation taken away from us” particularly in Europe. The Syngenta CEO commented that this is most acute in crop protection.
He added that if there is a reliable framework in place and science-based regulations then companies like Syngenta will continue to invest and feel confident to invest.
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Genome-editing is dream-technology and has a huge upside to achieving the outcomes we want in the short to medium term, according to John Hickey, head of corn design at Bayer Crop Science.
The Roscommon man told the World Seed Congress: “We’ve increased corn yield 6.5-fold in the last 70 years. We can do the same thing in the next 70 years.”
He added that gene-editing technology, which basically speeds up the conventional breeding process, can turn 100 years of breeding into 10 years.
Gene-editing, he said, “would allow us to have crops that are much more productive and have a much smaller environmental footprint”.
Syngenta CEO Jeff Rowe spoke about having “higher yields with lower impact” by using genetics, gene-editing, chemistry, biological and digital tools. However, he noted that in order to have these tools a science-based regulatory system is needed and this is a challenge. Rowe added that what he hears from farmers is “we keep having innovation taken away from us” particularly in Europe. The Syngenta CEO commented that this is most acute in crop protection.
He added that if there is a reliable framework in place and science-based regulations then companies like Syngenta will continue to invest and feel confident to invest.
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