Bayer inaugurates new greenhouse for R&D in North Carolina

Bayer CropScience celebrates the opening of its newest research facility: a 3-story, 60,000 square foot greenhouse that will be used for soy, corn and other broadacre crop research. The Company invested USD 20 million for the new BioScience greenhouse in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Through research and development initiatives, scientists will grow solutions to meet the world’s increasing demand for food and more productive farmlands. Bayer Board of Management member Professor Dr. Wolfgang Plischke; N.C. Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco; and Dr. Richard Reich, Assistant Commissioner, N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services along with and other state and local dignitaries were on hand to share in the festivities.

"This investment in research and people will help drive our developments in producing crops even more efficiently and sustainably,” said Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, the Bayer AG management board member responsible for Innovation, Technology and Sustainability, during the inauguration ceremony. “The greenhouse marks our commitment to cultivating new ideas and answers, and also reflects our continued expansion of our BioScience activities.”

Research cultivated in the new Bayer CropScience greenhouse includes the study of traits for corn and soybeans, as well as molecular breeding and the development of data packages for trait deregulation. The greenhouse is set to propel farming forward with 30,000 square feet of greenhouse space, more than 3,500 square feet of office and meeting space, and 2,400 square feet of growth chambers, laboratory, seed handling and storage areas. The facility was built with sustainability in mind: A 70,000 gallon underground water storage tank will harvest rainwater for plant irrigation and is expected to reduce consumption of potable water by approximately 700,000 gallons annually.