Pioneer Hi-Bred Sharpens Focus on Wheat Research
5 March 2012 Pioneer Hi-Bred and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics have extended their research agreement aimed at improving the overall productivity of wheat, as well as other crops.
The new program will focus on advanced cereal breeding through molecular markers, discovery research for agronomic traits and hybrid seed production in wheat. In addition, the collaboration will continue working toward agronomic traits to increase drought tolerance and decrease the need for soil-applied nitrogen fertilizer in leading production crops, including corn, soybeans, canola, rice and sorghum.
“It’s critical that we increase our efforts to grow global food production to meet the needs of our growing population,” said Paul E. Schickler, president of Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, in a statement. “ACPFG is an industry leader in wheat research and development, and this collaboration will strengthen our ability to bring high-yielding wheat products to farmers worldwide.”
This collaboration is another example of DuPont responding to the global hunger challenge. Pioneer Hi-Bred and ACPFG have been research partners since 2005 to discover and develop traits for yield enhancement and stability in a number of major crops. They extended their agreement in 2010 and are expanding the collaboration to include a new focus on wheat.
“A core role for ACPFG is to help ensure Australian producers benefit from local and international technology developments. We do this through developing new technologies and working with the very best research and commercialization groups,” said Peter Langridge, ACPFG research leader in a statement. “The support of the Federal and South Australian governments has allowed us to develop our significant research capability. “
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Source: DuPont, Edited by Stefanie A. Toth, Online Editor
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