RESEARCH over the past four years shows that canola is a poor competitor with established roadside plants and is unlikely to develop wild populations.
And other research shows that concerns of roadside canola crossing with other canola plants are unfounded.
The University of Melbourne surveyed more than 200 kilometres of southern Mallee and Wimmera roadsides in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006, and found low densities of canola every year. But in most cases there was no correlation between population location and density from one year to the next.
Agronomy lecturer Rob Norton said canola was not a roadside weed that persists.
"The plants you see come from seeds dropped during transport, establish, grow, possibly set seed, but don't persist with new generations," he said.
"The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator in its risk assessment of genetically modified canola recognised that canola is a poor competitor with established plants. Roadside canola can be controlled in the normal way by slashing, grading, and with different herbicides.
"Every year we do the survey, the results essentially come up the same."
* Extract from a full report in Stock Journal, December 11 issue.