BASF and Monsanto add wheat to biotech collaboration

Farm and Ranch July 9, 2010 BASF and the Monsanto Company have announced an expansion of their joint biotechnology efforts to develop higher-yielding and stress-tolerant crops. Up to now the cooperative effort has covered corn, soy, cotton and canola but Jonathon Bryant, Vice President of Plant Sciences for BASF in the U.S., says wheat is being added to the collaboration.

Bryant: “I think that wheat is a crop that is ideally suited to take the technology we have been developing for yield and drought tolerance, possibly even nitrogen use. I think the basic technologies to increase productivity have a good fit and I think can expand the utility of wheat in the U.S.”

Around 2012, the companies expect to introduce the world’s first genetically modified drought-tolerant corn, pending regulatory approvals. Bryant says a wheat product from the BASF-Monsanto collaboration is further down the road.

Bryant: “Obviously we are starting from a different place. We can leverage the technologies we have been developing for crops like wheat and soybeans so we have a jump start. But I would say that beyond 2020 would be the time horizon for wheat introduction.”

BASF and Monsanto are also increasing their investments in the biotechnology collaboration. When the collaboration started in 2007 the companies dedicated a joint budget of 1.5 billion dollars. This new agreement will result in a potential additional investment of more than one billion dollars.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.