ICRISAT, Corteva Agriscience sign multi-year partnership

Hyderabad: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Corteva Agriscience, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, on Thursday inked a multiyear partnership to strengthen food security by improving crops that feed millions through sharing of high-tech and modern breeding technologies. 

The technology sharing includes CRISPR-Cas gene editing, adapting transformation techniques to new crops, and applying knowledge of plant biochemical pathways with the goal of productivity and quality improvements for crops that feed millions of people. 

Tom Greene, CortevaAgriscience, said, “We look forward to applying the cutting-edge technology, like CRISPR-Cas, to address challenging crop production and consumer-facing quality problems.”

The plan to work together on crops such as sorghum and millet was solidified at a meeting during the 2017 World Food Prize where ICRISAT Director General David Bergvinson and Tom Greene of Corteva Agriscience outlined general research concepts, targets and available technology that would help drive solutions.