The Chinese agricultural technology company Origin Agritech has announced that its GM drought-resistant maize trait has completed production trials, the fifth and final stage of the process to receive a biosafety certificate, and an application has now been filed for biosafety certificate approval. Trials carried out by Origin suggest yield improvements of 9.2-16.2% under water-stress over non-GM maize, in addition to enhancing water use efficiency by 33-47% under irrigated conditions.

Origin Agritech entered an exclusive rights agreement with The Biology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for its GM drought-resistant maize earlier this year (see AgbioNews Jul 13, 2021).

The Chinese government has made a number of moves in recent months signalling the impending commercialisation of GM maize and soybean varieties in the country, including proposed changes to the domestic seed industry (AgbioNews Nov 15, 2021) and the publication of draft rules on herbicides for use on GM crops (AgbioNews Dec 3, 2021) and a National Registration Standards for genetically modified maize and soybean varieties (AgbioNews Dec 14, 2021).