Newswise — ST. LOUIS, MO—June 3, 2019—Benson Hill Biosystems, a crop improvement company unlocking the natural diversity of plants, and RiceTec, a leader in hybrid rice seed technologies, announced prior to the kick off of the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) Conference at Shenzhen, China, the licensing agreement for the use of Benson Hill’s technologies as part of RiceTec’s rice research and development operations.
“As the rice seed technology leader known for revolutionizing rice production, innovation has been key to RiceTec’s success,” said Dario Bernacchi, Director of Traits and Technology of RiceTec. “Exploring the integration of Benson Hill’s precision tools and collaborative approach to empowering innovation aligns with our mission to drive food production through rice seed technologies and to ensure superior quality and greater profitability for our growers.”
Benson Hill empowers organizations of any size across the agri-food value chain to benefit from the most advanced tools in genomic and molecular innovation. Benson Hill’s novel nucleases and business model offers an alternative genome editing solution for organizations interested in accessing gene editing to accelerate their business goals.
“RiceTec is known for their quality, high-yielding rice cultivars and ability to innovate for efficiency, sustainability, and best practices for rice growers,” said Matt Crisp, CEO of Benson Hill Biosystems. “Benson Hill is proud to be able to deliver our most advanced genomics tools to a partner like RiceTec to accelerate crop improvement.”
Rice is the primary staple crop for much of the world’s population. Half of US-produced rice is exported internationally, contributing to the more than 490 million metric tons of rice consumed worldwide in 2018.
About RiceTec
RiceTec has been developing hybrid rice seed since 1988, offering the first commercial hybrid rice seed product in 1999. RiceTec was founded on the premise that modern, technology-based breeding techniques – combined with a broad, diverse germplasm collection – allow for efficient development and economical production of superior hybrid seed products. More information can be found at www.ricetec.com.
About Benson Hill Biosystems
Benson Hill empowers innovators with a revolutionary crop design platform to develop healthier and more sustainable food and ingredients. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with genome editing and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. More information can be found at www.bensonhillbio.com. Follow Benson Hill on Twitter at @BensonHillBio.
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