STAFF -Seed and ag chem firms BASF and Monsanto have agreed to work jointly on development of dicambatolerant cropping systems they expect to have available in Canada by mid-decade.
The two companies’ agreement grants each company reciprocal licences to the other’s work and gives Monsanto a supply line for BASF’s formulated dicamba herbicides.
The deal is expected to facilitate “further development work and subsequent commercialization” of a dicamba-tolerant system, which would include BASF’s proprietary dicamba formulations and Monsanto’s proprietary dicamba-tolerant trait for soybeans.
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The two companies expect the new cropping system to be introduced in both the U.S. and Canada in the middle of the decade, pending regulatory approvals.
Once it’s commercialized, the dicamba-tolerance trait is expected to be stacked with Monsanto’s Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean trait. Monsanto noted it also has dicamba-tolerant canola, corn and cotton crops in its R&D pipeline.
Dicamba, a Group 4 herbicide, is marketed by BASF under the name Banvel II and as part of herbicide combinations including DyVel and, in Eastern Canada, Marksman. Monsanto sells a glyphosate/dicamba combination in Western Canada under the name Rustler.
The two companies’ agreement gives them the right to commercialize new dicamba herbicide formulations optimized for use with dicamba-tolerant crops and the right to develop their own mixtures with certain herbicides.
The two firms first announced a joint licensing agreement to develop formulations for dicamba for use with herbicide-resistant cropping systems in January 2009.
