DuPont and ACPFG extend partnership

DuPont and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics have extended their long-standing research collaboration and commitment to increasing productivity in leading production crops.

The companies partnered in 2005 to discover and develop traits to increase drought tolerance and to decrease the need for soil-applied nitrogen fertiliser, as well as to grow overall crop yields in corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, canola, sorghum and barley. The initial five-year collaboration has now been extended until 2015.

“Pioneer views partnerships such as this as an asset to our R&D program,” said John Bedbrook, Vice President - DuPont Agricultural Biotechnology. “We have been extremely pleased with this collaboration and its progress toward innovative solutions to meet global productivity challenges. As an international leader in crop genomics research, we look forward to our continuing partnership with ACPFG to develop products that bring value to growers in the United States, Australia and worldwide.”

“Pioneer is an excellent partner and we are thrilled that Pioneer has seen value in our joint work,” said Peter Langridge, Chief Executive Officer of ACPFG. “Together, we have enjoyed a rich research collaboration which we hope is creating value for Pioneer’s key crops - as it is certainly helping our core goal to deliver outcomes for Australian growers,” said Langridge.

ACPFG scientists are improving cereal crops’ tolerance to environmental stresses such as drought, heat, salinity and nutrient toxicities. These stresses are a major cause of yield and quality loss throughout the world and cause significant problems for cereal growers.