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Agribusiness, Agrotech, Digital Technologies, Japan

Yamaha Agriculture, Inc. acquires Robotics Plus and The Yield to enable precision agriculture for growers.

 Japan based Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announced the launch of Yamaha Agriculture, Inc., a new company focused on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions that help growers in the specialty crop market become more sustainable, profitable and resilient in the face of scarcer resources and climate change. Through the strategic acquisitions of Robotics Plus1 and The Yield, Yamaha Agriculture will provide robotics solutions for spraying, weeding and other field operations, while leveraging advanced data analytics and AI to enable precision farming and data-driven decision making for growers of wine grapes, apples and other specialty crops in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

“Establishing Yamaha Agriculture is a pivotal milestone in our Long-Term Vision 2030, ART for Human Possibilities. This initiative embodies the three core pillars we aim to achieve in our 2030 Long-Term Vision: Advancing Robotics, Rethinking Solutions and Transforming Mobility,” said Jim Aota, Chief Strategy Officer for Yamaha Motor. “It also aligns with Yamaha’s global technology roadmap, focusing on advanced energy management, intelligent systems and software-driven solutions. With the launch of this new company, we aim to leverage Yamaha’s technological expertise to contribute to sustainable and profitable farming using a customer-centric approach. Growers will be able to better address challenges around labor shortages, resource scarcity and impacts from climate change.”

Robotics Plus provides an autonomous hybrid vehicle capable of multiple activities including spraying and weed control, addressing key labor challenges faced by growers. The Yield brings advanced data analytics and AI-powered models to deliver yield predictions and optimize on and off-farm operations. Leveraging Yamaha’s long heritage as a trusted manufacturer of high-performance products, the new agriculture business will scale these two innovative solutions with a focus on quality, reliability and safety. These complementary technologies will be integrated to create a comprehensive platform that enables precision farming for growers. By combining autonomous equipment with intelligent data insights, Yamaha Agriculture helps growers reduce input costs, optimize resource utilization and improve overall farm productivity and sustainability.

“Guided by our mission to ensure growers are sustainable, profitable and resilient, Yamaha Agriculture recognizes that the challenges facing specialty crop growers require thoughtful solutions that will take time to develop,” said Nolan Paul, Group CEO of Yamaha Agriculture, Inc. “We believe meaningful innovation in agriculture emerges through close collaboration with growers and industry partners. The capabilities of Robotics Plus in robotics and automation and The Yield in AI-powered analytics represent two important building blocks in addressing these challenges. As we work to bring these technologies together, we are committed to a deliberate approach that prioritizes creating real value for growers while maintaining the high standards of quality and reliability for which Yamaha is known.”

Yamaha Agriculture, Inc. acquires Robotics Plus and

Agbiologicals, Agribusiness, New Zealand, R&D, Seeds

This innovative seed treatment will be available for maize, cereals, brassicas and pasture seed, helping growers reduce nitrogen losses and environmental impact while maintaining yield.

BioConsortia, Inc., a California based leader in agricultural technology, specializing in advanced microbial solutions to enhance crop productivity and reduce agriculture’s ecological impact, has announced a commercial agreement with New Zealand-based seed company Hodder and Taylors Ltd (H&T).  H&T, known for improving crop and forage systems on New Zealand farms, will introduce BioConsortia’s AlwaysN microbial seed treatment during the 2025 season. This innovative seed treatment will be available for maize, cereals, brassicas and pasture seed, helping growers reduce nitrogen losses and environmental impact while maintaining yield.

Since 2023, BioConsortia and H&T have conducted successful field trials in New Zealand, demonstrating nitrogen-replacement results consistent with earlier trials conducted since 2021 in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Europe.

Paul Oliver, H&T Managing Director, stated, “This technology offers a new opportunity to reduce nitrogen fertiliser use in New Zealand agriculture, delivering both economic and environmental benefits while maintaining crop performance.”

Marcus Meadows-Smith, CEO of BioConsortia, added, “Our proprietary microbes effectively colonise crop roots, ensuring there is always nitrogen available to influence crop yield. These microbes remain active in the root zone throughout the growing season, converting atmospheric nitrogen into plant-accessible forms even after synthetic fertilisers dissipate.”

Setting a New Standard for Shelf Stability and Seed LifeBioConsortia’s nitrogen-fixing seed treatments boast a shelf life exceeding two years and maintain on-seed stability for an additional two years, far surpassing industry norms.

“Our use of Gram-positive microbes, known for their inherent stability and reliability as root colonisers, underpins this breakthrough,” explained Dr. Hong Zhu, Senior VP of R&D at BioConsortia. “Through our proprietary R&D platform, we’ve unlocked the nitrogen-fixing potential of these microbes, creating ideal candidates for seed treatment products.”

BioConsortia’s flexible microbe discovery platform played a pivotal role in this innovation. Given New Zealand’s regulatory restrictions on gene-edited organisms, BioConsortia identified wild-type microbes from its extensive library that naturally fix nitrogen. These microbes, with intrinsic genetic traits enabling nitrogen fixation, deliver reliable yield performance.

Combining cutting-edge discovery and advanced gene-editing capabilities, BioConsortia’s platform represents a breakthrough in microbial seed and fertiliser treatments. “Our seed-applied products offer unmatched ease of use for growers, ensuring strong yields without relying on increased synthetic nitrogen,” said Meadows-Smith.

The collaboration between BioConsortia and H&T marks a significant step forward in sustainable agriculture, providing New Zealand farmers with tools to achieve higher productivity and reduced environmental impact.

This innovative seed treatment will be available

Agribusiness, Company News, Fruits, Horticulture, Supply Chain, Trade, World

The acquisition of Pace bolsters AgroFresh’s presence in key fruit-growing regions in North and South America.

As the pioneer and global leader in post-harvest solutions for fresh produce, AgroFresh Solutions, Inc. announced the acquisition of Pace International LLC, including its domestic and overseas operations (“Pace”). Prior to the transaction, Pace was a subsidiary of Valent BioSciences LLC, a Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. group company. Pace is a respected global provider of sustainable post-harvest solutions, equipment and technical services. The acquisition of Pace bolsters AgroFresh’s presence in key fruit-growing regions in North and South America and further enables the company to support its global customers with quality and freshness solutions for high value and highly perishable crops.

Pace manufactures and supplies edible fruit coatings, fungicides, cleaners and sanitizers, sustainable storage treatments and application equipment for fresh produce. Integrating the Pace business expands AgroFresh’s post-harvest solutions to a broader portfolio of technology, services and digital solutions in both the organic and conventional produce categories, furthering AgroFresh’s ability to support customers in accomplishing their mission of protecting produce quality and freshness on its journey from harvest to home.

“This acquisition enables us to take another important step towards our vision — to be regarded by customers as the post-harvest partner of choice. We are excited to bring the combined portfolios, technical expertise and services of both companies to customers,” says Clint Lewis, CEO at AgroFresh. “Bringing together our two companies allows us to better address the complete needs of customers across a broad array of crops, markets and at every step in the fresh supply chain, ultimately helping customers produce and deliver an abundant supply of quality fresh produce, sustainably.”

In addition to integrating the Pace business into the company, AgroFresh and Valent BioSciences plan to develop a strategic collaboration to accelerate the development of innovation to address the most pressing challenges in the freshness protection space. This collaboration aims to capitalize on the expertise and technology pipeline of Valent BioSciences to develop new post-harvest products, services and digital solutions and to leverage AgroFresh’s global scale and reach to bring them to market.

“Acquisition of the Pace business by AgroFresh will create a post-harvest solutions platform that benefits customers and the food protection industry as a whole through stronger global reach, enhanced services and additional innovation capabilities,” says Salman Mir, President and CEO of Valent BioSciences. “We are excited to collaborate with AgroFresh in developing and commercializing new products, technologies and services that will address key customer challenges.”

With the addition of Pace, AgroFresh is better positioned to address customers’ needs through a full portfolio of products and capabilities. This will be realized along with a continued commitment to advancing innovation in the post-harvest sector and supporting customers in their effort to grow and distribute an abundant supply of sustainable, quality, fresh produce around the world.

AgroFresh Solutions Inc. is a portfolio company of Paine Schwartz Partners, a global leader in sustainable food chain investing. Deutsche Bank served as financial advisor and Morrison & Foerster served as AgroFresh’s legal advisor for the transaction.

The acquisition of Pace bolsters AgroFresh's presence

Agribiotechnology, Agribusiness, Agrotech, Foodgrains, World

Company expects to increase yields of Ultra High Protein Low Oligosaccharides, non-GMO varieties to be within 3 to 5 bushels per acre of commodity GMO soy varieties.

Benson Hill, Inc., an ag tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, announced that recent advances in its soybean breeding program will drive the doubling of its seed portfolio by 2025. The latest field evaluations on Benson Hill’s third generation of Ultra High Protein Low Oligosaccharides, non-GMO soybean varieties showed protein gains of 2 per cent over the previous generation and achieved a yield gap of only 3 to 5 bushels per acre, compared with commodity GMO soybeans.

“We’ve successfully demonstrated that CropOS®, our AI-based prediction and data insights platform, can drive our predictive breeding efforts and give us a step-change forward on multiple traits like protein and yield,” said Jason Bull, Chief Technology Officer of Benson Hill. “We are now seeing massive gains in the field that minimize the trade-off between yield and protein, surpassing expectations from when we began building on the high-protein soybean genetics we acquired in 2019.”

“What this means for the industry is that we’re accelerating our speed to market with de-risked, outcome-based products in record time,” Bull added. “We expect to expand our portfolio of seed innovations again in 2025 to offer two dozen varieties that encompass protein, lower indigestible sugars, and quality oil.”

Benson Hill Chief Executive Officer Deanie Elsner also announced at FARMCON 2024 an expansion of its commercially available soybean portfolio for 2024, adding five value-added varieties to its lineup. Benson Hill previously offered about a dozen soybean seed varieties that deliver ultra-high protein, high-oleic and low-linoleic oils, and low-oligosaccharide quality traits. For the 2024 planting season, U.S. soybean farmers can choose from more than 20 varieties across several relative maturity groups.

Benson Hill’s herbicide-tolerant Ultra High Protein soybean varieties are on track for commercial release in 2025, with acreage and further portfolio expansion expected in 2026. This is a major step in providing farmers options for weed control and enabling lower-cost, broadacre production of already advantaged Ultra High Protein soybeans for the feed industry.

By leveraging deep insights on its proprietary soybean germplasm, Benson Hill is strategically positioned to drive seed innovation in broadacre opportunities for the aquaculture, pet food, swine and poultry markets – some 90 percent of the soy market.1 According to Elsner, the recent field evaluations support Benson Hill’s acceleration to an asset-light model focused on partnerships and licensing, including seed.

“Over the last several years, we’ve discovered ways to boost soy protein by 8 to 10 percentage points over commodity, and there are more seed improvements coming in geographies relevant for poultry production,” Elsner told FARMCON attendees “Today, Benson Hill is well positioned to validate our products with customers and end users to create market demand and begin to scale our seed innovations across approximately 7 million acres by 2030.”

Company expects to increase yields of Ultra

Biofuel industry, Company News, North America, Oilseeds

Camelina seed will be sold through Syngenta’s AgriPro® dealer network in a vertical marketing model.

Syngenta Seeds, LLC, part of the Syngenta Group, and Sustainable Oils, Inc., a subsidiary of Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc., have entered into a new agreement to sell Camelina sativa (camelina) seed – an ultra-low carbon oilseed crop that can be used as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable fuels, and an ingredient for sustainable animal feed.

The collaboration reflects Syngenta’s strong commitment to enabling farmers to economically adopt regenerative practices around the world. Camelina can be planted on fallow land or land left idle between crop cycles. It is valued for its low water usage, quick maturity, and resilient yields. Camelina protects land like a cover crop providing a range of environmental benefits, including soil health and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Camelina seed will be sold through Syngenta’s AgriPro® dealer network in a vertical marketing model. Farmers who buy camelina seed will have a harvest purchase contract. There is no marketing risk for the farmer since there is already an integrated value chain model.

In addition, producing camelina is an attractive option, providing farmers with quick soil cover and improved soil structure, without displacing another crop or requiring new equipment.

Camelina seed will be marketed in select areas of Western Kansas, Colorado, Montana and the Pacific Northwest. It can be included as a spring crop in a wheat-fallow rotation in Montana and the Pacific Northwest, and as a winter crop in Kansas and Colorado.

By offering farmers a new cash crop in high demand, the commercial partnership promotes a more diverse and resilient agricultural system while helping to deliver direct economic benefits to farmers from their otherwise idle or fallow farm acres.

“The collaboration of Syngenta Seeds and Sustainable Oils to sell camelina seed for use in sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and animal feed production is a significant step forward in promoting regenerative agriculture and renewable energy,” said Eric Boeck, Regional Director North America for Syngenta Seeds. “By supporting farmers and offering a sustainable source of fuel and animal feed, this partnership represents a win-win for producers, the environment, and the rural economy. It embodies our commitment to sustainability and our drive to bring innovative solutions to market.”

“We are very excited to partner with Syngenta Seeds on this collaboration to expand camelina’s growth in the U.S.,” Sustainable Oils President Mike Karst said. “Camelina represents a key feedstock for the production of renewable fuels and sustainable aviation fuel. It is a remarkable crop that protects like a cover crop and pays like a cash crop. We’re proud to be working with Syngenta to bring this opportunity to more farmers, improving our soil health and carbon storage while strengthening our nation’s domestic energy production in the process.”

Camelina seed will be sold through Syngenta’s

Agri Genomics, Agrotech, Company News, R&D

 The new company will facilitate trait development and next-generation plant breeding

Calyxt, Inc.  a plant-based synthetic biology company, and Cibus, a leader in precision gene editing in agriculture, announced that both companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Calyxt and Cibus will merge in an all-stock transaction. The merger will create a new industry-leading company that combines the two pioneers in agriculture-based gene editing and establishes one of the world’s most sophisticated facilities for trait development and next-generation plant breeding.

The combined company will be a leader in two key applications for gene editing in agriculture:

Productivity Traits:

 Productivity traits are a key basis of competition in the “seed and trait” business. The key focus of Cibus’ patented gene editing platform, the Rapid Trait Development System™ (RTDS®), is the development of a new class of productivity traits in seeds addressing the sustainability of farming by increasing crop yields and reducing inputs such as fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers.

Renewable Low-Carbon Ingredients:

Gene editing is a key tool in the development of sustainable low-carbon ingredients that can replace fossil fuel-based ingredients and diesel fuel. This is a key pillar of the Net Carbon Zero Climate 2040 goals and the global movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Cibus has a broad pipeline of productivity traits and collaborations with several leading seed companies. It is currently launching three important productivity traits: one in canola and two in rice with transfers to customers for commercialization beginning in the first half of 2023. In addition, Cibus and Calyxt are both working with leading consumer product companies to develop more sustainable ingredients.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Calyxt will issue shares of its common stock to Cibus shareholders in an exchange ratio such that upon completion of the merger, Calyxt shareholders will own approximately 5 per cent of the combined company, subject to adjustments permitted by the merger agreement. The Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction. Concurrent with the execution of the merger agreement, certain officers of Calyxt, all of Calyxt’s directors, and Cellectis, S.A., Calyxt’s largest shareholder, executed support agreements in favor of the merger. These support agreements provide 49.9 per cent approval from Calyxt shareholders. A majority of Cibus’ shareholders have also provided support agreements in favor of the transaction. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of the merger by the shareholders of Calyxt.

 The new company will facilitate trait development

Agrotech, Company News, North America

The change has been effective from January 1, 2023. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Corteva, Inc.

Global pure-play agriculture company Corteva, Inc.  has announced that its subsidiary E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company will change its name to EIDP, Inc., consistent with its contractual obligations related to its separation from DowDuPont, Inc.  The change has been effective from January 1, 2023. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Corteva, Inc.

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry-leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services

The change has been effective from January