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Jan. 5, 2018 Source: Monsanto news release Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) today announced updates on advancements made across its research and development (R&D) pipeline over the past year. A record number of projects advanced phases across the company's five R&D platforms: data science, plant breeding, plant biotechnology, crop protection and ag biologicals. This marks the fifth consecutive year that more than 20 projects advanced in the pipeline. "Farmers' abilities to meet global food and fiber needs will continue to be constrained by land and water availability, and complicated by climate change - so we need to grow more crops, but we need to do it using less water and less energy," said Dr. Robb Fraley, Monsanto's executive vice president and chief technology officer. "Our work contributes to each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and many of the projects in our R&D pipeline reflect our commitment to climate-smart practices in modern agriculture. Farmers will continue to fight off drought, yield-robbing weeds, destructive insects, and plant diseases all while trying to optimize the opportunities uniquely embedded in their fields. And our researchers' early adoption of data science innovations- especially artificial intelligence and machine learning - will help farmers accomplish their goals to the benefit of the environment and consumers." Monsanto's R&D platforms support sustainable modern agriculture practices by delivering innovations that: Help Farmers Combat Threats To Their Crops According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as much as 40 percent of the world's potential harvests are lost to damaging insects, weeds, and plant diseases each year.1 Over the past century, the crop protection toolbox has grown larger and more effective, while evolving to enable farmers to produce more with less of an impact on the environment. Key Monsanto R&D pipeline projects designed to help farmers combat threats include: • Lygus and Thrips Control Cotton technology, which is advancing to Phase 4, is designed to protect farmers' cotton crops from damage caused by lygus, thrips and fleahopper bugs. This technology has the potential to be the first to control all three cotton pests, while potentially reducing the amount of insecticides farmers spray on their plants to do so. • Trecepta technology, advancing to launch in 2018, which is designed to help farmers protect their corn plants from attacks by damaging insects including fall armyworm, corn earworm, corn borers and cutworms. • NemaStrike technology, which is designed to protect corn, soybean and cotton crops from tiny parasitic worms called nematodes that attack plant roots and negatively impact harvests. Also aimed at controlling nematodes, the Soy BioNematicide product being developed by The BioAg Alliance with Novozymes uses soil microbes to combat nematodes and advances to Phase 3. • The Climate Corporation's disease diagnosis and identification technology, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and diagnose diseases in corn, soybeans and wheat in real time to help farmers move quickly to protect their crops during the growing season. This technology advances from development to the pre-commercial phase. • New formulations and combinations of proven weed killers in products like Harness Max Acetochlor Premix, advancing to launch in 2018, Next Gen Dicamba Premix (Phase 2) and Acetochlor + Dicamba + 3rd MOA Premix (Phase 1), which will eventually help farmers manage weeds that steal sunlight, water and nutrients from crops. "On our family farm, we strive to use the products, technologies and information that allows us to be highly productive and efficient in growing crops in a sustainable way for the land and society. Understanding the interaction of these enables us to use the right products at the right time with confidence," said Matt Helms, Monsanto's global ag productivity technology lead. "Our R&D pipeline has a broad range of technologies. Some of these are more familiar such as next-generation herbicide premixes in new combinations, and others are breakthrough and novel such as on-seed soil microbes and artificial intelligence." Tweet |
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