Viterra and Evogene union to improve canola tolerance and yield Photo: Carsten Stender

The Canadian agricultural products company, Viterra (Regina, Saskatchewan), and the Israeli biotechnology firm, Evogene (Rehovot), have agreed to collaborate on the development of genetically modified canola with both improved yield and abiotic stress tolerance qualities.

The union marks the beginning of a three-year project set to assess a number of genes discovered by Evogene during trials studying Viterra’s canola lines.

With environmental factors such as extreme drought, cold and heat continuing to impact agriculture, the research holds important potential for securing successful production of high-demand canola oil.

Mayo Schmidt, Viterra president and CEO, announced his support of the union. “We are very pleased to work with Evogene to bring innovative solutions to the canola market,” he notes. “Our company has an ongoing commitment to plant breeding that benefits our farm customers as well as our end-use customers.”

“We believe this particular initiative will go a long way to improving canola yields and yield stability.”

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The candidate genes were first discovered by Evogene using its in-silico gene discovery platform, ATHLETE. They were evaluated in model plants with positive results, demonstrating an improved yield under both normal and stress environmental conditions.

Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s president and CEO, noted both past successes and the potential of the union. “We have been working with global ag-biotech companies to introduce these genes into major field crops. We recently announced successful third- year field trial results for one of these candidate genes – Evo133,” he says.

“With Viterra, [we are] sharing that common goal to develop canola with improved yields and enhanced performance under a variety of conditions.”

Viterra will evaluate the effect of the genes in its canola lines this spring in field trials in western Canada.

Both companies are also set to sign a co-operation and project funding agreement with the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (CIIRDF), through which the Foundation will provide monetary support for the project.

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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