Bayer CropScience's strategic crops: Oilseeds --- a key source of vegetable oil and renewable energy

Date:09-23-2013

Oilseeds are highly versatile plants: oilseed rape, canola and mustard offer valuable protein as food and feed while also excelling as a source of high-quality vegetable oil for human consumption, for industrial lubricants and for biodiesel.

Oilseed rape is the third largest oilseed crop after oil palms and soybeans, accounting for approx. 15% of the world’s vegetable oil production. Cultivation is expanding rapidly, from less than 10 million tons in 1975 to about 65 million tons today.

Main producers include the European Union, Canada, China, India, Australia and the United States, which together account for more than 95% of global production. More than half of the grain meal is utilized as animal feed. The oil is used for food (about 70%), biofuel (about 25%) and other applications (about 5%).

Oilseeds are an attractive cash crop for growers and often used as a rotational crop to cereals.Key growth drivers for oilseeds are its high nutritional value (e.g. its low content of saturated fatty acids), and increasing demand for specialty oils in highly varied industrial and nonindustrial applications.

Paving the way for stronger plants and higher productivity

Bayer CropScience is a leading expert when it comes to strong and healthy canola plants consistently demonstrating superior yields, high nutritional value and excellent industrial efficiency.

•InVigor seed: leading germplasm quality and trait technologies (recently improved varieties include clubroot resistance, pod shatter reduction, Sclerotinia tolerance and higher yields)
•InVigor Health seed: varieties with special oil profiles – high oleic content that offers a healthier alternative to trans fatty acids created from hydrogenated vegetable oils

Package of efficient and innovative products and solutions to protect harvests from yield losses accompanying the plant through its lifecycle:

•Seed growth: effective protection against seed-borne diseases and soil pests at plant’s early growth stage with key brands such as Prosper™, Modesto™, Elado™
•Weed management: protection from competition with weeds through herbicides and herbicide-tolerance traits (e.g. LibertyTM, LibertyLinkTM)
•Management of yield-robbing pests, such as pollen beetles (e.g. Biscaya™, Decis™,Proteus™).
•Control of yield-reducing diseases with fungicides (incl. biological solutions) and inbred disease resistance, such as Sclerotinia tolerance. Key crop protection brands include Folicur™, Proline™,  Tilmor™, Prosaro™ and SerenadeTM.
•Offer rounded off with services and consultancy for canola growers such as advice on selection of best seed hybrid, general agronomic seeding and fertility information,
consulting on weed, disease and insect control, and harvest recommendations

Further advancing the seed business by geographical expansion

As an established expert in canola seed, Bayer CropScience intends to extend its success to other oilseed rape types (winter oilseed rape) and regions such as Europe, Australia, India and China.

Recent milestones to build a global oilseed rape seed business include acquisitions, cooperations and investments into research and breeding infrastructure:

•Investment of over EUR 12 million in new wheat & oilseeds breeding center in Australia (2012)
•Acquisition of Raps GbR (German oilseed rape business) and breeding program in Europe(2011)
•Research collaboration with KeyGene (2011) to create new non-GM traits in oilseed rape.
•Strategic trait license agreements, e.g. with Pioneer (2010) and Monsanto (2009).
•Investment of over EUR 10 million expanding the R&D station in Saskatoon, Canada(2009).
•First winter oilseed rape varieties in Europe have been available since 2012. First hybrid seeds in Australia were launched this year. The existing mustard seed business in India will move towards higher-value hybrids.

A comprehensive innovation platform to further advance the global oilseeds business

Bayer CropScience is committed to offering further new solutions to growers, based on innovations in chemical and biological crop protection, breeding and traits.

Key trait and breeding targets are in the fields of yield assurance through herbicide tolerance; disease control; yield enhancement through increased grain yield; pod shatter resistance; and enhanced oil quality through improved fatty acid profiles to serve specific nutritional needs or industrial uses.

The main biotech research center for oilseeds is located in Ghent (Belgium), key breeding stations are in Canada, Europe, Australia and India – plus further testing sites around the globe.