Bayer CropScience expands West Sacramento R&D labs

Bayer CropScience is continuing to expand and upgrade its 160,000-square-foot research and development lab in West Sacramento.

 

Just this month, the company’s vegetable seeds division moved from Davis into offices at 890 Embarcadero Drive in West Sac. That division has 40 employees.

 

That follows the move nearly a year ago, when the company’s biologics world headquarters moved from Davis to West Sacramento with about 160 employees.

 

And the company is about to convert some warehouse space into offices for the employees in the various labs at the West Sacramento campus. The new offices aren’t for new hires; they are to provide office space for the researchers and scientists who work in the company’s labs, said Ashish Malik, vice president of global marketing for the biologics division.

 

So far, the company is occupying about 130,000 square feet of the 160,000 square feet available.

 

In a couple of weeks, the company will open a new high-tech greenhouse in the same business park as the laboratory. The greenhouse property is split in two, one side each for researchers from vegetable seeds and biologics.

 

The biologics division does research into biological controls for protecting plants from insects and disease. Biologics are an alternative to chemical controls and fertilizers. Biologics typically don’t pose the same risks to the environment as chemical pesticides and fertilizers.