Evogene Establishing Biofuel Feedstock Field Trials in Texas and Brazil
Evogene Ltd. announced the establishment of field trials in Texas, USA and northeastern Brazil, for the evaluation of its proprietary castor bean lines. These castor bean lines, designed for higher yield and growth on semi-arid land, are being developed by Evogene to serve as a sustainable and cost efficient second-generation feedstock for biofuel production.
Having recently completed two years of field trials under semi-arid conditions in Israel, the purpose of the field trials in Texas and Brazil is to evaluate the lines when grown in the two main target locations for future commercial growth, and further develop them to local conditions. The semi-arid land potentially available for castor commercial growth in these areas is estimated at over 10 million hectares and the climate conditions are suitable for this purpose. The field trials will be operated in collaboration with Texas AgriLife Research, part of the Texas A&M System in the U.S., and South Cone Agriculture in Brazil.
"During the past few years, in addition to our well-established and rapidly growing agbio trait activities, our biofuel activity has grown with the castor project being a key component,” stated Mr. Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and CEO. “Both the USA and Brazil have strong potential in terms of land availability, commitment to biofuels and ability to develop large scale agriculture industries. We look forward to working with the professional teams at Texas AgriLife Research and South Cone Agriculture to test our castor lines and further develop them towards commercialization."
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