October 19, 2021
Following a successful year of collaboration, AbacusBio and Bayer have agreed to expand their partnership in the area of predictive plant breeding. This marks AbacusBio’s largest collaboration to date, which is anticipated to have a far-reaching impact along numerous crop supply chains. As part of this multi-year collaboration, the companies will work together to incorporate AbacusBio’s leading expertise in prioritisation and valuation of crop attributes to advance Bayer’s products that deliver grower, market, and consumer needs.
The success of this collaboration has been recognised by the IHS Markit’s Crop Science awards, as a shortlist nominee for Best Industry Collaboration of 2021. Moving forward the collaboration will expand row crops across broader geographies and will also include various vegetable crops. Through computational integration of economic, grower preference and socio-demographic data, AbacusBio technology can improve the predictions of how products will meet market needs.
“We know from the first year of the collaboration that the benefits of bringing together AbacusBio’s expertise and Bayer’s wealth of data are significant,” said Dr. Tim Byrne of AbacusBio who has seen first-hand, the benefits farmers stand to gain when science and technology are combined at scale. “Now, working with Bayer to apply the solutions we are building to a broader range of crops is very exciting.” By gaining insights, Bayer is able to better select and advance products that will help meet grower needs and deliver consumer demands. This is achieved by balancing genetic gain across a combination of product attributes to meet production, quality and sustainability needs in the market, while collaborating closely with all members of the supply chain.
Importantly, and aligned with Bayer’s strategic goals, the collaboration will also focus more deeply on genetic gain for global sustainable farming practices and for smallholder farmers.
Excitement amongst both organizations is palpable, as the impact of this work is expected to improve the livelihoods of farmers around the world and allow for improved decision making across the Bayer pipeline.
“Innovation does not happen in a vacuum,” said Dr. Mike Graham, Head of Plant Breeding, Bayer Crop Science. “Expanding beneficial partnerships, like what we have with AbacusBio, brings together the brightest minds to tackle agriculture’s biggest problems.”
“We are thrilled to bring some of our vegetable crops into the partnership with AbacusBio. Leveraging data and algorithms will help narrow in on product characteristics that are important to growers and consumers today and in the future,” said Dr. J.D. Rossouw, Head of Vegetable Seeds R&D at Bayer Crop Science.
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