Fargo, North Dakota
July 27, 2006
North Dakota State University and
Monsanto Company have
announced a collaboration between the NDSU AgBiotechnology:
Oilseed Development Center of Excellence and the St. Louis-based
agricultural company. In this public-private partnership,
scientists from both organizations will focus on cooperative
research, technology development and educational activities that
are expected to benefit North Dakota's agricultural sector, its
producers and consumers. The initial focus of the collaboration
will be oilseed improvement.
NDSU Vice President for Research, Creative Activities and
Technology Transfer Philip Boudjouk said, "NDSU has played an
integral role in North Dakota's $4 billion-per-year conventional
agricultural economy. Partnerships such as this one facilitate
the opportunity for additional cutting-edge innovations in
agriculture into the 21st century."
NDSU Vice President for Agriculture and University Extension
D.C. Coston said, "Results of these collaborations will expand
the economic vitality of North Dakota. We are addressing a
critical national priority while concurrently contributing to
the prosperity of rural areas of our state."
NDSU's Ken Grafton said, "If North Dakota is to maintain its
edge in crop production, NDSU must conduct research on important
plant characteristics, understand how those characteristics
respond to North Dakota's environment and deploy them in ways
that create value for crop producers in both eastern and western
North Dakota." Grafton serves as director of the North Dakota
Agricultural Experiment Station; dean of the College of
Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources; and director
of the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence.
Grafton noted that NDSU and its outlying Research Extension
Centers, like most land-grant universities, can benefit from the
expertise, experience and support of private-sector
organizations such as Monsanto.
The NDSU-Monsanto collaboration will give faculty and students
working with the new AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence an
opportunity to observe and learn from Monsanto's
state-of-the-art crop improvement, animal science and
biotechnology programs.
Grafton said, "Knowledge gained in the collaboration should help
the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence identify viable
opportunities for North Dakota growers to increase the
productivity of their operations, add value to commodities they
produce and expand opportunities in the emerging bioproducts
industries in the state. Agriculture is North Dakota's No. 1
industry; we need to sustain and support it."
"North Dakota has a diverse and dynamic agriculture, and
Monsanto scientists are eager to work with their NDSU
counterparts to identify new opportunities for North Dakota
farmers," said Ernesto Fajardo, Monsanto's U.S. crop production
lead. "Biotechnology has helped North Dakota farmers diversify
their crop enterprises."
"It is our hope that this collaboration will culminate in new
ideas and the commercialization of unique technologies that will
give NDSU, and especially young North Dakotans, a greater role
in tomorrow's exciting agriculture," said Monsanto Chief
Technology Officer Robb Fraley.
Bill Wilson, NDSU Agribusiness and Applied Economics professor
and an assistant director of the AgBiotechnology Center of
Excellence, says many remarkable plant science innovations will
be commercialized in the next decade. "North Dakota has accrued
more than $700 million in economic benefits from crop
biotechnology, and NDSU wants to ensure that North Dakota
producers have access to these technologies and that our state's
consumers benefit from recent advances in genomics, plant
breeding and biotechnology. It is great to have the support of
Monsanto. They value independent, third-party research."
Phil McClean, NDSU Plant Sciences professor and an assistant
director of the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence, said,
"Collaborations with Monsanto will provide access to
leading-edge technologies that have the potential to positively
impact North Dakota production agriculture for years to come.
Their research pipeline contains both consumer and producer
traits that will be of value to all North Dakota producers and
their customers."
Learn more about the NDSU AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence
at
www.ag.ndsu.edu/research/AgBiotechCE.htm.
Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of
technology-based solutions and agricultural products that
improve farm productivity and food quality. For more information
on Monsanto, see
www.monsanto.com. |