Mahyco licenses agricultural biotechnologies from Performance Plants

Performance Plants Inc. (PPI), a leading global agricultural biotechnology company (Kingston, ON, Canada) and Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd. (Mahyco) (Mumbai, India), entered into a commercial license agreement, giving Mahyco exclusive rights for PPI’s Heat & Drought Tolerance Technology (HDT™), Yield Protection Technology (YPT®) and Yield Enhancement Technology (YET™) in various key crops. Through this agreement, Mahyco will be able to access an array of PPI’s breakthrough technologies for crop yield improvement in India and other South Asian countries.

Signing this agreement with the leading Indian seed company, Mahyco, marks a significant business milestone for PPI, as the company continues to push forward its global technology development and product commercialization plan. In 2011, PPI expanded beyond its historic target markets of agri-food and biofuel into the consumer market sector with commercial agreements for PPI’s HDT™ in cotton with global partners such as Bayer CropScience and Biocentury Transgene (China) Co. Ltd. The company also signed a commercial licensing agreement for corn and a four-year R&D agreement for rice and soybean with the Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co. Ltd. (DBN). These agreements enable PPI to work with its partners to produce future high performance seed varieties for farmers world-wide.

Mahyco is India’s largest and most diverse private seed company. Over the last 4 decades and through intense research and breeding, Mahyco has established itself as one of the clear leaders in the Indian seed market. Mahyco has used R&D to establish itself as a pioneer of high quality hybrid/open-pollinated seeds, through strict adherence to its motto, "Quality Seed – Mahyco Seed”.

India lags in per hectare productivity due to sub-optimal rainfall and extreme high seasonal temperatures. There is significant pressure to increase agricultural productivity to meet the needs of India’s rapid population growth and stabilize national food securities. Current agricultural methods have not been able to address these challenges, and the next most promising approach is to use advanced gene-based biotechnologies combining the best available breeding materials for further crop yield improvement.

All PPI technologies target different native mechanisms using plant’s own genes to enhance heat and drought tolerance, water use efficiency, and seed & biomass yield. These technologies enable crops to withstand periods of adverse environmental conditions, thus maintain high yield and productivity under climate variability. These technologies can be applied to all staple crops for improvement of agronomic performance.