Kaiima partners with IRRI on improving rice varieties

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Kaiima Bio-Agritech Ltd., yesterday announced their partnership to develop new rice varieties.

The project combines IRRI’s and Kaiima’s expertise in breeding and technology, in order to develop high yield hybrids and lines. The aim is to breed new rice varieties with significantly more biomass and higher grain yield, while maintaining a high level of important quality parameters.

The seed and technology company Kaiima has been able to successfully harness the benefits of polyploidy by developing a breakthrough, non-GMO technology called Enhanced Ploidy (EP™) - that multiplies the plant’s genome without compromising its integrity. When applied to high-impact food crops, EP™ significantly boosts productivity and improves land and water-use efficiencies. EP™ is based on a phenomenon that occurs naturally in plants called polyploidy, which is considered as one of the most important evolutionary processes that plants use to adapt to stressful environmental changes.

”We are delighted to partner with IRRI – a world leading organization in rice breeding," said Dr. Doron Gal, CEO of Kaiima. "Applying Kaiima technology to IRRI’s elite genetic material can create a breakthrough in the yield and climatic adaptability of this key global crop," he added. "The newly developed varieties will allow us to improve yield stability for rice farmers in a sustainable manner and help address food security for years to come".

“Developing partnerships like this one with Kaiima is critical to ensuring IRRI has access to new technologies to develop new rice varieties that can benefit rice farmers,” said IRRI’s Deputy Director General for Research Dr. Achim Dobermann.

“We’ve always valued partnerships across the public and private sector, to help us achieve our goals to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure that rice production is environmentally sustainable,” he added.

IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute, is a nonprofit independent research and training organization. IRRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. IRRI develops new rice varieties and rice crop management techniques that help rice farmers improve the yield and quality of their rice in an environmentally sustainable way.

Kaiima is an innovative Israel-based seed and breeding-technology company. Kaiima's mission is to help feed the world and energize it by introducing new varieties of key agricultural crops, specifically designed for sustainable agriculture, with vastly improved yields. EP™ has been successfully demonstrated by Kaiima in several crops, including wheat, maize, rapeseed and castor.