Gibat Hen, isarel
June 16, 2021
PlantArcBio, a leading gene discovery biotech company, announced today a new collaboration agreement with Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. ("Bioceres") (NASDAQ: BIOX), a fully-integrated global provider of crop productivity solutions designed to enable the transition of agriculture towards carbon neutrality, for the development of improved biomass & drought tolerant Alfalfa, leveraging PlantArcBio's identified genes and Bioceres expertise in development of drought tolerant crops.
In this collaboration, PlantArcBio has granted Bioceres the exclusive licensing rights to its leading biomass & drought resistance genes for Alfalfa worldwide; those genes were discovered by PlantArcBio in soil samples taken from the Dead Sea and have already proven their impact on biomass increase and drought resistance in several crops to date. Bioceres will develop Alfalfa varieties incorporating those traits and will commercialize them through its global leading presence. The agreement is contingent upon the successful incorporation of the genetic traits.
Today, Bioceres has developed a pipeline of alfalfa technologies currently at different stages of development, including drought tolerance, increased biomass and improved plant architecture. HB4 Alfalfa (drought tolerance) and different crop protection platforms are all entering regulatory stage.
Alfalfa is the most valuable forage crop worldwide due to its high quality as an animal feed and is planted on more than 30 million hectares worldwide, the United States being the largest producer. Alfalfa hay demand is largely driven by its high nutrient content as it is a rich source for protein and energy that helps improve: the lactation, reproduction, maintenance and growth of livestock. The demand for alfalfa is predicted to continue increasing in the near future and to meet this need, alfalfa producers must be effective in providing large quantities of high-quality alfalfa while using natural resources, especially water, in a highly efficient way. The global market for alfalfa hay is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.89% to a market size of US$20.6 billion in 2025, from US$14.6 billion in 2019 (Research and Markets, 2020).
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