AgBiome / TMG collaborate to develop boll weevil resistant cotton

AgBiome, a leader in developing innovative products from the Earth's microbial communities, and Tropical Melhoramento e Genética (TMG), a Brazilian breeding company with state of the art breeding technologies for developing soy and cotton cultivars with high productive potential, announced recently a new global R&D collaboration. The goal is to discover and develop traits with novel modes of action to combat the cotton boll weevil.

The partnership will pair AgBiome's successful Genesis platform with TMG's proprietary germplasm and Cotton Improvement Program to provide genetic solutions to farmers worldwide. With the adoption of these technologies, the number of pesticide applications for weevil control can be reduced, and grower value can increase significantly.

Brazil is one of the world's leading cotton producers and the second largest exporter of the fiber, with TMG contributing to 38% of the country's cotton seed market. Boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a serious pest of cotton, and is controlled mainly through heavy use of pesticides in Brazil and adjacent markets.

"In the United States, eradication of the cotton boll weevil has been fairly successful," said Dan Tomso, Chief Business Officer at AgBiome. "Internationally, and in countries like Brazil, the pest persists and is only controlled with multiple pesticide applications. We're excited to begin our work with TMG and hope to discover new solutions that are just as effective as today's pesticides."

"With this partnership, TMG looks forward to working with AgBiome to develop an innovative solution to the cotton boll weevil problem in Brazil," said Francisco Soares, CEO at TMG. "The complementary resources and capabilities that TMG and AgBiome bring into this partnership will deliver innovations paramount to the future success of cotton growers."

"Global partnerships are important to AgBiome's mission to provide responsible crop protection solutions to farmers worldwide," said Tracy Raines, Chief Innovation Officer at AgBiome. "This collaboration leverages the strengths of both organizations to develop a solution to mitigate such a devastating problem for cotton producers."

"TMG has a long history of delivering genetic solutions that contribute to the World demand for food and fiber in a sustainable way. This new research initiative is perfectly aligned with our strategy and shows the commitment that both companies have to bring the best alternatives to the growers." said Alexandre Garcia, Research Manager at TMG.