In developing countries around the world, a new research report indicates that extensive use of no-till could increase corn yields by 20% over the next 36 years. And if irrigation was used in these no-till fields, corn yields could increase by as much as 67%.

Main has been the only state in the U.S. that doesn’t permit the planting of Bt corn, but that might be about to change. The state’s Board of Pesticide Control licensed the genetically engineered corn this past summer and recently held a public hearing on proposed rules regulating its use in the state. Bt corn could be used for the first time in Maine as soon as 2008.