December 18, 2009
Will tech alliance lead to new field crops for India and SEA?
Bioseed Research India Pvt. Ltd, a leading research and hybrid seed development company, fully owned by DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL), has signed a strategic partnership agreement to collaborate with KeyGene.
KeyGene is a research company based in the Netherlands and global leader in molecular breeding technology. The aim of this long-term partnership is to accelerate the development of new and innovative crop varieties for
India and South-East Asia.
Vikram S Shriram, vice-chairman & managing director, DCM Shriram Consolidated, said, ''''We are focusing on serving the South and South-East Asian farmers through the various agribusinesses. The hybrid seed business is one of the key drivers in our overall growth strategy. We believe that the use of KeyGene''s state-of-the-art Molecular Breeding technology platforms will increase the speed, precision and cost effectiveness of our product development processes. It will also help in increasing the productivity and income level of the farmers through faster introduction of high yielding hybrid seeds in the market.''''
Arjen van Tunen, CEO of KeyGene, stated that this partnership would be the basis toset up strategic co-development programmes in trait development which would add tremendous economic value for farmers in Bioseed''s new hybrid seed products. We are determined to make this partnership a success. I think that strong trustful relations between dedicated people form the basis of durable successes for now and in the future.''''
Bioseed has strong breeding programmes in all major field crops in several countries in South and South-East Asia, including India, Philippines and
Vietnam. By using KeyGene''s ''Green Gene Revolution'' technology & trait platforms for Lead Discovery, Molecular Mutagenesis and Accelerated Breeding, Bioseed has an enormous potential to identify and deploy naturally occurring genes for novel traits to improve the value of their hybrid seed products.
This collaboration aims to introduce game changing traits rendering crops optimised for substantially higher yield, sustainable production in tropical regions and improved quality characteristics.