Boliviana Negra - Herbicide Resistance

Herbicide Resistance

The herbicide resistance of this strain has at least two possible explanations: that a “peer-to-peer” network of coca farmers used selective breeding to enhance this trait through tireless effort, or the plant was genetically modified in a laboratory. In 1996, a patented Roundup Ready or glyphosate-resistant soybean was marketed by Monsanto Company, suggesting that it would be possible to genetically modify coca in an analogous manner. Spraying Boliviana Negra with glyphosate would serve to strengthen its growth by eliminating the non-resistant weeds surrounding it. Joshua Davis, in the Wired article cited below, found no evidence of CP4 EPSPS, a protein produced by the Roundup Ready soybean, suggesting Bolivana Negra was not created in a laboratory but by selective breeding in the fields.

A fungal plant pathogen, Fusarium oxysporum, has been suggested as a possible successor to glyphosate, although this itself poses hazards to humans and other plant species.