Despite extremely low insect pressure last year, YieldGard continued to perform better than conventional corn hybrids. Fifty-three percent of surveyed YieldGard growers said the product provided them with a good value, while 83 percent of surveyed users were satisfied with the product. Environmental Helping to ensure susceptible insects do not become resistant to the Bt protein in YieldGard corn is an important objective at Monsanto. This ensures susceptible insects are nearby to mate with rare resistant ones that may emerge from the Bt corn. Registration also was received for South Africa.
Registration is pending in Brazil and Indonesia.
Longer term, Monsanto is working toward registration in China, the Philippines, Thailand, Bulgaria, Honduras, Venezuela, Mexico and Hungary. YieldGard corn is fully approved for export to Europe and Japan. Biotechnology is a potent and valuable tool that can help make foods more productive and nutritious. Innovations Monsanto is devoting a significant portion of its research and development effort to the development of YieldGard hybrids that control a larger spectrum of harmful insects. Such a product may further reduce growers' input costs and, potentially, their use of chemical insecticides.