Bayer, Pairwise Begin Five-Year Collaboration to Advance Short-Stature Corn

Following a successful five-year collaboration on corn, soy, wheat, and canola, Bayer and food and ag company Pairwise have launched another five-year, multi-million-dollar collaboration to advance short-stature corn. \

The agreement will leverage Pairwise’s Fulcrum™ platform and will focus on optimizing and enhancing gene-edited short-stature corn for future use in Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System.

The companies are targeting a height of 30-40 percent less than traditional corn, offering a number of sustainability benefits including protection from crop loss due to severe weather and extreme winds, and the ability to be more precise with the application of inputs throughout the growing season.

The previous five-year collaboration between the partners resulted in 27 novel traits being transferred into Bayer’s testing programs, resulting in results demonstrating significant commercial value including corn with a 20 percent increase in kernel rows, and edited soy that reduces the severity of Asian soybean rust.

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