DuPont & Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Collaborate to Advance Crop Insect Control

DuPont and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Collaborate to Advance Crop Insect Control, Increase Yield

DES MOINES, Iowa, and BEIJING. – DuPont and the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPP/CAAS) today announced they have entered into a multi-year, exclusive research collaboration to improve in-plant insect control to help increase yield in crops of worldwide agricultural importance.

Under the agreement, DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred will collaborate with the Institute of Plant Protection to identify novel genes to develop and commercialize in next-generation seed products. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Global agriculture must produce sufficient quantities of food, feed, fiber and fuel for an expanding world population,” said William S. Niebur, DuPont vice president – Crop Genetics Research and Development. “This innovative partnership between established leaders in plant biotechnology will create novel genetic-based solutions that will drive increased productivity by farmers in China and around the world to help meet increasing consumer demand.”

The Institute of Plant Protection and Pioneer will apply their collective expertise in microbial screening, molecular biology and genomics to discover gene leads that protect crops from yield losses due to destructive insect pests. Pioneer researchers will use gene shuffling, molecular breeding and other proprietary trait enhancement tools to further develop these gene leads. An accelerated trait integration process will be utilized to incorporate traits into high yielding products rapidly to enhance product introduction timelines and increase global agricultural productivity.

“The continual discovery and development of new traits for insect and pest control is important not only for providing growers with enhanced options but also for solving the challenges of insect resistance. We are pleased to be collaborating with a global leader like Pioneer to bring our institute’s novel insect control options to the world market,” said Professor Kongming Wu, director general – Institute of Plant Protection of CAAS.

The Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Leaving Pioneer.com is a leading research institute devoted to developing new science and technologies for agricultural applications.