The Australian National University and Bayer CropScience have signed a research agreement to develop technology with the potential to produce higher-yielding food crops.
While commercial farmers in industrialised countries would pay for such crops, the ANU said in a news release on 1 August, the agreement stipulates that the technology will be made available at no extra cost to subsistence farmers in less developed countries through links with international agriculture aid organisations.
According to Jill Gready, leader of the ANU research team, the agreement recognises the potential of technology that produces improved mutants of the Rubisco enzyme.
“This technology has the potential to address important problems globally by increasing the rate of capture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” she said.
“Many applications of this newly developed technology are envisaged, including the production of higher-yielding food crops that use water and fertilizer more efficiently.
“The technology also has potential applications in the improvement of plants for bioenergy production, to improve trees or other plants for carbon sequestration, and in the improvement of agricultural soils and land remediation,” she said.