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GOTHENBURG - Is it really possible to double 2000 corn, soybean, cotton and canola yields by 2030 while also decreasing water, fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide use?

It's hard to imagine a Nebraska harvest averaging 300 bushels of corn or 120 bushels of soybeans per acre anytime soon - until a person takes a drive with Chandler Mazour around field demonstration plots at Monsanto's new Water Utilization Center south of Gothenburg.

The crop history and new technologies displayed, plus Mazour's enthusiasm, make a strong argument that such a farming future is possible.

In two plots, one planted to soybeans and the other to corn, side-by-side rows in a stair-step pattern illustrate the length of rows required to produce a bushel of grain over the decades.

The longest rows represent the 1940s or 1950s. Rows just a few feet long are the estimated 2030 yields. In-between rows show the significant yield progress made in 20-year intervals even without today's knowledge and technologies.

"There's so much information out there," said Mazour, manager of the Gothenburg center. "We're teaching, but we learn from every group that comes through here."

He asks applicants for learning center jobs if they're comfortable working "in a world where there are more questions than answers."

The $6 million Monsanto site also includes a new building for crop breeding operations already in the Gothenburg area. Visitors include farmers, crop consultants, people in agribusiness and other interests from the high plains target area and from around the world.

Mazour is a Holdrege High School graduate. He has a master's degree in plant breeding from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's of business administration. His previous work for other crop product companies, including American Cyanamid and BASF, took him around the world to see how agriculture works on a global basis.

Mazour said doubling crop yields by 2030 is vital to feeding a world population estimated at 9 billion by 2050, with most of the growth in developing countries.

Monsanto's holistic approach to meeting that yield goal has three components: genetics, biotechnology and agronomics.

Mazour said the genetics work includes traditional and marker-assisted breeding and native genes.

Genome mapping allows today's researchers to more quickly identify genetic markers that translate into desired plant traits. A learning center video says a corn hybrid's life cycle has gone from 8-10 years in the past to 3-4 years today.

"Corn chipping" technology allows a tiny piece to be cut from a corn kernel for DNA analysis without damaging the embryo. Mazour said that means the "one seed in a million" with all the biotechnology traits desired - herbicide tolerance, pest control, etc. - can be identified and planted.

He said new corn products produced through biotechnology are an eight-trait seed with no yield drag that will be available in 2010 and a drought-tolerant hybrid for 2012, pending regulatory approval.

The Gothenburg center will play a vital role in the third component, agronomics, by helping farmers increase yields while using less water and other inputs.

"It's going to be an increasing challenge for agriculture as battles for water intensify," Mazour said, and as more people get two or three generations removed from farms. "They don't understand where their food comes from ... with that disconnect, there are increasing challenges for agriculture."

He said Nebraska farmers in areas with well moratoriums and allocations already may be near the minimum amount of irrigation water needed to make a crop.

The Water Utilization Center has classroom space with movable walls that can be configured for groups of 5 to 400. The audio-video system now has 17 monitors, but can go up to 32, and seven data input points. "Right now, it's about 20 percent operational," Mazour said.

In winter months, he'll give visitors virtual tours of the demonstration plots using videos created from thousands of photographs taken during the 2009 crop year.

In the future, he'll host videoconferences and show virtual videos from other Monsanto research and education sites. "We basically want to bring the world of technical agriculture here," Mazour said.

Crop season visitors touring the 80 demonstration plots can see management methods that mimic the variable growing conditions in the high plains states. Subsurface drip and pivot irrigation systems allow different water applications. Adjustments also are made in plant populations, field residue, genetics and nitrogen stress management.

"It's how do you get the right seed with the right biotech traits with the right populations ...," Mazour said. "We feel that if you take away any one of the (three) legs of the system, we can't help farmers reach the goal of doubling crop yields by 2030."

The learning center's ability to simulate different conditions is the key to customizing presentations representing the diversity of climates, soils and other conditions in the high plains - generally west of the 100th Meridian that runs through Cozad. Mazour said the Gothenburg site was selected because it's in the middle of the transition zone for irrigation in the high plains.

"We try to keep it one-third on genetics, one-third biotechnology and one-third agronomics," he said about most tours, although 80 percent of the focus was on biotechnology for a group from Japan.

Mazour said the center's information also comes from "external collaborators," including farm and irrigation equipment manufacturers, other agribusinesses, agronomists, university specialists, grain and input marketers, irrigation districts, and natural resources organizations. Many of those interests are represented on an advisory board that helped design the Water Utilization Center.

So what's in it for Monsanto?

"The company is spending the money because of a commitment to a sustainable yield," Mazour said, which requires creating relationships with farmers and developing products they want. "The seed business is a very relationship-related business."

e-mail to:

lori.potter@kearneyhub.com

Monsanto Water Utilization Center

Location: South of the Gothenburg I-80 exit on the east side of the Highway 47

Size: 155 acres, including 80 field demonstration plots

Facilities: 20,000-square-foot breeding station building and 15,000-square-foot learning center

Cost: $6 million

Opened: June

Employees: Plant breeding, 15-16 full time; learning center, six full time

Focus region: High plains states, including Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado

Audience: Farmers, crop consultants, input distributors, grain marketers, university specialists, water policy makers, other related businesses and collaborators, Wall Street investors, ag youths, and international interest groups

Methods: "Holistic approach" involving genetics, biotechnology and agronomics

Goal: Double 2000 worldwide crop (corn, soybeans, cotton, canola) yields by 2030, while maintaining or decreasing inputs (irrigation, fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides)

On the Web: www.monsanto.com/learningcenters