Hereford, Texas, USA
January 6, 2010

Although trait technologies, both biotech and conventional, have benefited corn, soybeans and other crops for years, some crops such as sorghum have been left wanting. No more.
A robust pipeline of biotech and conventional traits at Advanta promises to springboard sorghum into a prominent crop in North America and around the world.

“The pipeline of traits under development at Advanta will have a tremendous impact upon the future of sorghum as a mainstream crop in the U.S. and abroad,” says Cleve Franks, PhD, plant geneticist and breeder at Advanta US. “And the range of traits in development is quite broad, from cold tolerance to herbicide tolerance and nitrogen use efficiency to salt tolerance.”

To support the kind of research and development Dr. Franks refers to requires infrastructure and a significant cash investment. Advanta US is a business unit of Advanta India Limited. Advanta is the world’s largest sorghum germplasm, seed research and marketing company. Advanta US is the largest supplier of forage sorghum genetics in North America and is the leading genetics supplier of bioenergy sorghum hybrids in the US and around the world.

According to Dr. Franks, Advanta has been steadily investing in research and development of technologies across a range of crops. The company features unique, superior and proprietary germplasm and intellectual properties which provide for a robust platform for growth. Advanta also has leadership positions in a range of tropical and temperate crops, including Sorghum, Sunflower, Soybeans, Rice, Corn, Mustard, Cotton and Vegetables.
“Research and development is at the heart of everything we do here at Advanta,” says Dr. Franks, who leads the breeding efforts in the U.S. to apply technologies and integrating germplasm. “Our commitment to research and development will generate sorghums with better energy conversion, better forage production, higher sugar contents and production improvements like herbicide tolerance.”

The traits currently in development at Advanta include:

• Cold Tolerance
  A conventional trait, Advanta’s scientists have discovered the key to lowering sorghum’s tolerance to cold soils by 10 F or more. This means sorghum can be planted earlier, in 50 F soils, and the range of grain sorghum can be expanded throughout the Corn Belt.
• Herbicide Tolerance
  Through conventional techniques, Advanta’s scientists can confer tolerance to ALS and ACCase Inhibitor class herbicides, which greatly enhances growers’ ability to control weeds and grasses in sorghum.
• Salt Tolerance
  Through a research and commercial development agreement with Arcadia BioSciences for the development of Salt-Tolerant sorghum, Advanta receives exclusive global rights to Arcadia’s Salt-Tolerance technology. This technology will expand the range of lands available for crop production and reduce requirements for fresh water.
• Nitrogen Use Efficiency
  Also in development at Advanta with Arcadia BioSciences, is Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) technology. Already a crop requiring less nitrogen for corn, the NUE technology elevates the value of sorghum.
• Drought Tolerance
  It is widely known that sorghum requires less water – 30 percent to 50 percent less -- than corn and other crops, but a drought tolerance trait in development at Advanta promises to set the bar even higher for competitive crops.

Advanta US offers unique germplasm for high quality forage sorghums, sudangrasses, hybrid grain sorghums, sorghums for biofuels and sunflowers. For more information on Advanta US and its products, go to: www.advantaus.com.

Advanta is a global seed company headquartered in India and with operating units in Argentina, Australia, India, Thailand and the USA with a wide range of proprietary products in important agricultural and vegetable crops that improve the productivity and profitability of the farmers in different parts of the world. Advanta is a member of the United Phosphorous Group of Companies. For more information visit: www.advantaus.com.

Website: http://advantaseeds.com/

Published: January 6, 2010