Arcadia Biosciences Inc. and DuPont Pioneer have announced their intention to collaborate to develop enabling technology to help manage pollen flow in sorghum. This technology will help facilitate the development and deployment of agronomic and quality traits in the crop. Under the agreement, Arcadia receives exclusive global rights to develop specified Pioneer technology for use in grain, forage, sweet, and biofuel sorghum types.

“Globally, sorghum is an important crop for food and feed and has significant potential as a highly productive biofuel source,” said Eric Rey, president and CEO of Arcadia. “Our agreement with DuPont Pioneer will speed the development of much-needed technologies that will create added value and improved crop performance for sorghum growers worldwide.”

“We believe improvements in crop productivity through our advances in reproductive biology play a critical role in increasing crop yield and quality,” said Marc Albertsen, DuPont Pioneer research director, Trait Discovery. “We have already seen success in this space through the implementation of DuPont Pioneer Seed Production Technology (SPT) process in corn and its development for rice. We are pleased to form an alliance with Arcadia to leverage our capabilities into sorghum.”

Grown on approximately 100 million acres globally, sorghum is the world’s fifth-largest cereal crop. It is mostly used for food, animal feed, and a variety of industrial applications around the world. While sorghum is a hardy crop well suited for hot and dry climates, plants are still affected by environmental stresses that impact grain and biomass yield and quality. The potential exists for numerous agronomic performance and quality traits to be developed and commercialized in sorghum. This collaboration between Arcadia and Pioneer is focused on developing core technology that will enable the deployment of such traits.