NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Research and hybrid seed development firm Bioseed Research India and KeyGene today announced a partnership to discover new traits for increasing crop yields in South and Southeast Asia.
The firms will make joint investments and initially focus on developing abiotic stress tolerant crop varieties. Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Vikram Shriram, vice chairman and managing director of DCM Shriram Consolidated, the parent firm of Bioseed, said with global warming the occurrence and severity of drought is expected to increase and the partnership with KeyGene is targeting the development of new crop varieties that "combine high yield potential with high drought tolerance."
Herco van Liere, vice president of business development at KeyGene, a Dutch technology and trait research firm, added that the deal builds on a relationship between his firm and Bioseed established in 2009.
"In our extended collaboration, KeyGene will add value through its various proprietary technology platforms, including KeySeeQ and KeyPoint Mutation Breeding, and its drought tolerant trait know-how," he said in a statement.