Evogene Unit, Brazil's Embrapa Join On Advancing Castor Cultivation In Brazil

(RTTNews) - Evogene Ltd. (EVGN), an Israeli plant genomics company, Monday announced the signing of a joint research agreement with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp. or Embrapa.

Under the deal, Evogene's unit Evofuel Ltd. signed the joint research agreement for the advancement of castor cultivation in Brazil. The cooperation will primarily focus on technologies for controlling castor-specific diseases as well as practices for castor cultivation in rotation with soybean.

The collaboration with Embrapa follows three years of successful field trials of Evofuel's castor varieties in Brazil.

At present, castor is cultivated on approximately 100,000 hectares in Brazil. This area is expected to substantially increase with the introduction of advanced varieties and new-modern cultivation practices, as being addressed by Evofuel in the past years.

The agreement is set to bring Embrapa's substantial experience in research and development of castor together with Evofuel's proprietary castor varieties.

Liv Severino, Chief of Research and Development of Embrapa Cotton, said, "Embrapa has been working for three decades on castor research and development in Brazil, achieving remarkable progress in many areas, including fertilization, weed and disease management, added value to by-products, and genetic resources. The joint work with Evofuel will promote synergy between the two partners and will consolidate our commitment to turn castor into a highly viable crop for Brazil's expanding agriculture."

In March this year, Evofuel had announced an agreement for the commercial production of castor in 2016 with Brazil-based SLC Agricola.