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Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., an agricultural technology company focused on products that benefit the environment and human health, today announced the successful completion of its first drought tolerance technology field trial.
Results of the trial demonstrated that plants engineered for drought-tolerance achieved significantly higher yields than the control plants under induced-drought conditions, and similar yields under non-drought conditions.

Arcadia's drought-tolerance program fits squarely with the company's portfolio of agronomic traits - including nitrogen use efficiency and salt-tolerance - all of which promote production efficiency and benefit the environment. These traits also help reduce agriculture's carbon footprint while enabling agricultural food production to adapt to climate change.

"Global warming and diminishing availability of fresh water resources are two of the most critical environmental issues our planet faces. Development of crops that can thrive using significantly less water can have a massive positive impact on food production as we wrestle with our growing global population, the reduction in available farmland, and a warming planet," said Eric Rey, president and CEO of Arcadia. "This technology can also be combined with our Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Salt Tolerance technologies to create hardier plants while reducing environmental impacts."

The drought-tolerant technology was developed by an international team of researchers and led by the University of California, Davis.
The University of California has filed a patent application on this technology. The patent application is pending in the United States and in a number of foreign countries. The patent rights are covered by an exclusive arrangement between the University of California and Arcadia. Results from lab and greenhouse trials by the University of California, Davis were published in the November 27 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Arcadia estimates that the first commercially available drought-tolerant plants could be available by 2016.

Based in Davis, California, with additional facilities in Seattle, Washington and Phoenix, Arizona, Arcadia Biosciences is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on the development of agricultural products that improve the environment and enhance human health.

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