Research for Innovative Solutions

Investing in secure harvests

As a world market leader in agricultural chemistry, Bayer CropScience is working to improve the world's food situation. The company plans to invest a total of 3.4 billion euros in research and development between 2008 and 2012. This will be split into just under 2.7 billion spent on researching innovative crop protection products and 750 million devoted to developing new solutions in the area of seeds and plant biotechnology. That is because research and innovation are only helpful if the products are actually used.

Each crop needs a different approach

Research and development needs to focus on individual crops so that farmers can have access to innovative crop protection solutions. This involves developing customised products covering the entire growing period from sowing through to harvest: examples include enhanced plant characteristics, better seeds and seed dressings, improved crop protection products and more effective growth regulators. Bayer CropScience supports these integrated crop platforms and is working to create partnerships throughout the value-creation chain. Bayer CropScience's researchers working on the use of biotechnology in rapeseed in Canada have already achieved an increase in oil yields of up to 30 per cent compared to conventional varieties.

Better rice yields

Bayer CropScience's research efforts have secured the food supplies and income of farmers on the Indian subcontinent, in south-east Asia and Latin America thanks to the hybrid rice variety Arize®, specially developed for the climate conditions in these regions and the tastes of local consumers. Increasing yields is the greatest challenge here. The key advantages of Arize® seeds are their high level of purity and ability to germinate. The rice seedlings are much more resistant to unfavourable environmental conditions, especially poor soil and bad weather. Yields from Arize® rice are up to 20 per cent higher than those obtained from non-hybrid varieties. This hybrid rice has as a consequence now become the market leader in India and the Philippines.

Improving stress tolerance

Making crop plants more tolerant of abiotic stress is another way of improving yields. Bayer CropScience's researchers have a range of instruments at their disposal. For example, they can insert useful genes into the plants to make them better able to cope with excessive stress caused by drought and flood. They can also deliberately switch off particular genes that in a normal plant would trigger an excessive stress reaction and reduce yields. This enables the plants to produce consistently high yields despite fluctuating environmental conditions.

[ last update: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 ]

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