Kingston firm sows the seeds of success

Kingston Whig Standard - A Kingston-based biotechnology company has signed a new deal to see its crop technology used for growing cotton plants. By Emily Davies

Performance Plant, which modifies traits in crops, struck a partnership with German bioagricultural firm Bayer Crop-Science to use Performance's patented yield protection technology (YPT) to increase cotton production in times of short rainfall.

"We've gotten good deals with other companies to use this technology for uses such as corn and soy," said vice-president (agricultural crops) Malcolm Devine. "This is the first one in cotton, which makes it really special for us," he said. "They're going to use the technology for the purposes of protecting their cotton from heat stress and increase their yields and their production."

Bayer Crop-Science plans on using the Performance Plants technology to help the company gain more market share in the cotton industry.

"We anticipate that Performance Plants' innovative YPT will contribute to further strengthening our leadership position in the global cotton market, especially with regard to ensuring higher yields in difficult climatic conditions," said Dr. Linda Trolinder, Global Cotton R&D Manager at Bio-Science, a division of Bayer CropScience, in a release.

Devine said the technology, which was discovered at the company's Kingston facility on Gardiners Road and tested at their research site in Saskatoon, has been around for a decade and is used for a variety of agricultural crops.

"It's a genetic change made to the seed," he said. "It's like when you make a car part to make the car run more effectively for a Ford, but you can also use it for a Chevrolet."

Devine said the technology modifies the plant by retaining water inside the plant through pores released in order to control its carbon dioxide intake.

"Water can move out of the plant in the form of water vapour," he said. "With the yield protection technology, these pores close to prevent the water from escaping, which is meant to protect the plant from drying out."

Devine said it will take approximately eight years of research and development for the modified seed to hit the market.

"You think of any place where there's plants growing and there's a strong likelihood of drought conditions," he said. "In reality, that's really any place."

Devine said Bayer will likely begin testing in the United States, with southwestern states, specifically Texas and Arkansas, likely to be ideal candidates for test sites.

"You can pretty well guarantee that the cotton grown there every year encounters some type of heat stress -- even with irrigation," he said. "This technology could also be used around the world. Australia is another country that grows a lot of cotton."

Devine says the technology could expand to other hot climates such as the Mediterranean.

Devine, who works out of the company's Saskatoon research facility, said he is impressed with the 14-year-old company's position as an emerging leader in the biotechnology industry. The company's products have already been licensed to such seed giants as Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta, Stine, RiceTec and Scott Miracle-Gro, which combined, make up half of the North American seed market.

"It's a small company that's doing its best in a competitive landscape. We're doing our best to find new traits in plants to improve agriculture."