Monsanto announced this week it has received import approval for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans to China. Farmers have been awaiting the technology, which offers the promise of more help controlling herbicide resistant weeds because the new product provides tolerance not only to glyphosate but to dicamba as well.

In a release announcing the approval, Brett Begemann, Monsanto president and chief operating officer, comments the company is pleased to bring the new soybeans to market. “After a decade of development, the new and elite germplasm in Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans can provide growers with outstanding performance in their efforts to produce the best crop possible.”

While the new soybeans have technology that allows use of both glyphosate and dicamba for weed control, farmers will not be able to use dicamba on those soybeans in 2016. The use of dicamba over the top of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans is still awaiting approval by EPA, and is not currently approved. In 2015, farmers in the South got access to Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton seed, but could not use dicamba either. The key is getting the new genetics into farmers’ hands.

The company notes that once EPA signs off on over-the-top spraying of dicamba on these new-tech crops, growers will have a new way to manage tough-to-control and glyphosate-resistant weeds.

Monsanto’s Asgrow, Channel and regional brands, along with Corn States licensees, expect to roll out more than 70 soybean products across eight maturity groups with agronomic traits including resistance to nematodes and phytophthora root rot. The new tech has been licensed by more than 100 seed brands, including DuPont Pioneer.

In the same announcement, Miriam Paris, U.S. soybean marketing manager, Monsanto, says demand for the new technology has been strong: “To date, we’ve had significant pre-orders from farmers and are excited to move forward with commercialization. Rountup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans are built on the same high-yielding germplasm Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans.”

You can learn more about the new tech by visiting roundupreadyplus.com/xtendcropsystem.