Bayer CropScience gets into wheat breeding

Friedrich Berschauer, chairman of the board of management for Bayer CropScience AG in Germany, spoke at the grand opening of Bayer’s Canola Breeding Centre of Innovation July 22 in Saskatoon. He made some positive comments about canola, then went on to add that Bayer has an agreement to work with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's wheat breeding program, to develop new wheat varieties.

This is a whole new focus for Bayer, whose seed business currently concentrates on canola, rice, cotton and vegetables. In a press release issued last week out of its HQ in Monheim, Germany, Bayer CropScience says the CSIRO alliance establishes a far-reaching joint research and development program "aimed at improving the productivity and sustainability of cereal production utilizing modern techniques." 

Bayer and CSIRO "will set up a number of research and development projects in the area of traits and their introgression into cereal germplasm, the goal being to develop cereal varieties with higher yield, more efficient nutrient utilization and tolerance against abiotic stress such as drought.

"One of the initial projects of this collaboration is dedicated to the development of wheat lines with improved yield potential and stress tolerance, while another focuses on wheat lines with improved utilization of phosphorus."

The first new varieties to come out of this alliance are expected in 2015.