BASF has decided to cease its activities in hybrid wheat seed development in North America and continue in Europe, the company announced this week.
“Over the past years, we’ve uncovered many learnings and have made significant progress with hybrid wheat breeding and seed production research. Despite the tremendous efforts of our expert teams, the results of our North American trials have not achieved the development goals we set to meet the needs of growers in Canada and the United States,” said Brent Collins, BASF’s head of seeds & traits, Canada, in an email to Germination.
“Therefore, the decision was made to focus our hybrid wheat technical, commercial, and production research efforts in Europe, where the cereals market has a higher value to support further investments in research and development (R&D).”
He said in North America, BASF will prioritize and focus its seeds and traits R&D efforts to support its current commercial field seed crops, which include canola, soybeans, corn and cotton.