Dow AgroSciences has become a major investor in Australian wheat breeding company HRZ Wheats. HRZ, Australia’s youngest major wheat breeding company, was established in 2003 with a main charter of providing high yielding, milling quality wheat varieties for wheat farmers in high rainfall regions of Australia.
HRZ Wheats charter was introduced based on expectations that farmland in wetter Australian regions will be increasingly moved over from grazing and pasture lands to cereal cropping in the near future, if rainfall patterns become more erratic as predicted.
Dow AgroSciences becomes a 50 % share holder, joining existing investors CSIRO, Landmark, New Zealand Plant & Food Research and the Grains Research & Development Corporation. The investment means that HRZ Wheats can maintain provision of disease resistant varieties of milling quality wheat that produce high yields whilst meeting the challenges met by wheat growers in high rainfall regions.
Under the agreement HRZ will be able to accelerate its development and delivery of advanced wheat varieties to Australian farmers. HRZ will benefit from Dow AgroSciences experience and advancements in technologies and breeding tools as well as additional funding, whilst for Dow AgroSciences the investment plays an integral part in its wheat profile research. Both companies gain from exchanging wheat germplasm.
Dow Agrosciences have developed advanced technologies for increased crop yield of high valued row crops such as cotton, sunflowers and canola. By giving access to these advances it is intended that HRZ will be able to bring better and novel wheat products to the market with increased frequency.
“At Dow AgroSciences, we see wheat as an important global crop so we’re excited to be able to provide the HRZ breeding team with … a ‘technology bridge’ to transfer these breeding tools, technologies and traits to HRZ to increase breeding efficiency… we hope this investment will mean better products come to the market more often – which will create value for grains industry participants.” Says Peter Dryden, Dow AgroSciences’ ANZ Managing Director.