A new trait in soybean crops developed by MSU could help farmers be more efficient while reducing the amount of chemicals sprayed on the plants.
Dechun Wang, an associate professor of crop and soil sciences, has developed two genes in soybean plants that render the plants resistant to soybean aphids, which are insects that feed off the plant. Wang began studying the soybean’s relationship with aphids in 2002, a year after he arrived at MSU and two years after aphids first were found in North America.
“That caused a lot of pain among the growers,” Wang said. “Before that they usually just grew soybeans. Because of (the aphids), it caused a major concern.”
Because the aphids are self-fertilized and only take a few days to reproduce, the effect of aphids on a crop can be devastating, said Chris Difonzo, a field crops entomologist at MSU.
“If unchecked, the species can destroy about 40 percent of a crop,” Difonzo said. “Aphids are a suck pest, so they suck plants up. … When you get 100 or 1,000 per plant, especially when the plant can’t replace the water, it will be stress on the plant and reduce yield significantly.”
The Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee invested $250,000 in Wang’s research to develop the aphid-resistant soybeans. Most farmers use insecticides to protect their crops from aphids, said Keith Reinholt, field operations director for the Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee.
“We were killing the soybean aphid but killing other beneficial insects,” Reinholt said. “It cost us a lot of money. (Developing a) soybean that was resistant, that would be the best choice.”
Farmers spend about $10 to $15 of insecticide spray per soybean acre and additional time mixing the insecticides together. Residue from the insecticide can get into underground water in the fields, posing a health hazard.
In 2011, there will be a small introduction crop of soybeans with the aphid-resistant traits, and the crop is expected to expand in 2012. About 70 percent of companies in the soybean seed market are licensed to use the aphid resistant soybean seeds, Wang said.
There have been two other attempts at creating a strain of soybeans that are aphid resistant and marketing it; however, neither type consistently resists the soybean aphids because the aphids have several different genetic make-ups.
This is the first resistant soybean from MSU, and has been tested on a variety of aphids from several states such as Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, Reinholt said.
With 12,000 soybean producers in the state of Michigan, soybeans are an important part of the economy that should be protected, he said.
“When (farmers) sell (soybean, it’s) close to a billion dollar industry,” Reinholt said. “I don’t think the state of Michigan can afford to lose a billion dollar industry.”
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