Moves by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries to develop a new genetically modified pasture variety have been bagged as a "waste of public money" by anti-GM campaigners.
The Victorian Government yesterday announced that the first Australian field trials of high-energy pasture grasses were set to start in Victoria soon.
"These new grasses have a reduced non-digestible content which, depending on the field trials, could mean farmers will be able to reduce the amount of feed they require for their stock," State Environment Minister Gavin Jennings said.
"This would be a critical breakthrough for dairy, beef and sheep industries which have less pasture available for stock because of climate change and the prolonged drought."
The trials will focus on pasture based on perennial ryegrass and tall fescue that have been developed by scientists at the DPI.
The Federal Gene Technology Regulator has granted a licence to plant up to 500 GM lines of these pasture varieties as part of a small field trial to be undertaken at the DPI Hamilton site.
"The trials are for proof-of-concept research and not for commercial release," Primary Industries Minister Joe Helper said.
"But this research may give farmers access to new pasture plant genetics with improved quality and energy content for livestock production."
DPI Biosciences Research Division executive director, Professor German Spangenberg, said the new technologies allowed for a targeted modification of lignin and fructan production in perennial ryegrass and tall fescue.
"Lignin provides the water proofing of fibrous parts of pasture that can't be easily digested by livestock and therefore can't be converted to energy for grazing animals," he said.
"Fructans are soluble carbohydrates that provide a readily available energy source to livestock.
"By modifying lignification and enhancing fructan production in these plants, the herbage nutritive value is increased and stock can gain more energy from less pasture."
But Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps said the trials were "a waste of public money".
"These scientific resources are needed right now to develop and deploy ecological systems that can drought proof, desalinate and restore soil fertility on farms," he said.
"An integrated, whole-of-landscape approach to sustainable farm management is the only way off the brink of permanent rural destruction.
"High technology, patented, gee-whizz GM plants cannot reverse the drought, biodiversity loss and collapse of nutrient cycling that is crippling farm production.
"More digestible GM grass is just a boffin's idea that makes sense in the laboratory but will fall at the first environmental hurdle."