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EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 45 agriculture and reflects our interest in work- ing side by side with farmers to improve the competitiveness and commercial value of their crops said Kopperts local Sales Director Valter Ceppi. Research into micro-organisms that are beneficial to agriculture will be one of the key activities to be developed at the new research and development centre. There will be a second laboratory for entomologi- cal research insects and an area devoted to quality control for all the biological products which Koppert sells in Spain. KeyGene has licensed its proprietary Sequence-Based Genotyping SBG meth- ods to Bayers new Crop Science division. Under the agreement Bayers Crop Science division obtains a non-exclusive licence for the in-house use of the SBG technology for crop improvement. SBG methods are highly cost-effective to identify and score thousands of DNA markers. The use of SBG accelerates genetic improvement of crops with novel traits thereby providing solutions to feed the world in a sustainable way. KeyGene is delighted with licensing its global SBG patent portfolio to Bayers Crop Science division an innovation-driven enterprise with competen- cies in the field of agriculture says Michiel van Eijk CSO of KeyGene. This licence agreement with Bayers Crop Science divi- sion supports our shared commitment to crop improvement and meeting the challenges of sustainable food supply. PRODUCT NEWS Seed enhancement company Incotec intro- duces its first seed technology for stevia seeds. The stevia plant is grown for its leaves which are used for making a natural zero-calorie sweetener. Incotecs new product not only increases the germination capacity of the seeds but also improves the growers production efficiency. Although Incotec has a broad portfolio of seed technologies for the enhancement of seed performance and yield this is their first product for stevia and they have indicated interest in developing other technologies for optimising stevia produc- tion. Stevia is a relatively new market and the demand for increased production in Europe is rapidly growing. This breakthrough is good news for stevia growers and only the first step. Incotec has several other solutions that could be developed for stevia and with feedback from the producers we can work together to get the most out of every harvest says Alexander van der Heiden Incotecs global commercial manager vegetables. Koppert Biological Systems has devel- oped a biostimulant for arable crops. The product contains a mix of plant growth pro- moting microorganisms. The application of Panoramix results in yield increase and increased nutritional value even at lower fertilisation rates. Koppert has developed Panoramix a concentrated liquid seed dress- ing especially for large arable crops such as maize and wheat. The product contains a mix of plant growth promoting microorgan- isms that are beneficial for the crop. These protect the seeds strengthen the seedling and promote growth and development of the root system and the fully-grown crop. Large yield increases have been measured in wheat and maize. The product soon pays for itself thanks to all the extra kilograms harvested. Seeds treated with Panoramix also show better plant emergence resulting in reduced additional sowing costs. The product also helps growers to make their production more sustainable. The crop is less susceptible to diseases so it requires fewer chemical crop protection products says Rick van der Pas product manager. Canary seed which has been used almost exclusively as bird seed has received novel food approval from Health Canada as well as GRAS Generally Recognised as Safe status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. With the achievement of this milestone were hopeful that the food industry and consumers will begin to adopt this nutri- tious high protein gluten free grain says Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan chair David Nobbs. Up until now production potential has been limited by the size of the market for birdseed. Canary seed flour can be used to make bread cook- ies cereals and pastas. Whole seeds can be used in nutrition bars and sprinkled on ham- burger buns in place of sesame seed. WEB AND APP NEWS Tozer Seeds Sends Seed to Space Station Tozer Seeds has donated 2kg of salad rocket seed to help the RHS and UK Space Agency conduct an experiment with thousands of schools. In September 2015 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station where they will orbit the Earth until March 2016 when they are due to return with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. In April this year up to 10000 schools will grow and compare the seeds flown to space with seeds that have stayed on Earth as part of the nationwide experiment. Participating schools will receive a teaching pack containing a packet of seeds from space and a packet that have remained on Earth a booklet outlining the main exper- iment a poster to record results stickers and more. Following the experiment procedure pupils will embark on a 35-day voyage of discovery to find out what growing plants in space can teach us about life on Earth and whether we can sustain human life in space in the future. Results will be collected and ana- lysed by biostatisticians and published later in 2016 feeding into the real life work going on in space science research. Two additional suites of resources aimed at primary and sec- ondary aged pupils are available to download from the European Space Education Resource Office UK website to enhance learning around the issues of growing food in space nutrition and plant mutations. The RHS Campaign for School Gardening will be accepting appli- cations for Rocket Science until March 2016 when the seeds return to Earth. Find out more and sign up here schoolgardening. rhs.org.ukCompetitionsRocket-Science- Application-Form New Ways To Get Crop Disease Observations The latest disease observations from AHDB Cereals Oilseeds research sites can be accessed in a variety of ways beginning February 2016. The publication of monitor- ing information is part of AHDBs efforts to alert the industry to in-season disease pres- sures. We collect a vast amount of disease information from our variety and research site network across England and Scotland explains Jenna Watts. By sharing our obser- vations we can help flag up emerging issues such as regional disease hotspots or unantic- ipated disease pressures on resistant varie- ties. In 2015 disease observation data was published weekly along with timely updates from research projects assessing fusarium and sclerotinia infection risks on cereals. ahdb.org.ukmonitoring. Due to the success of the service the monitoring website will once again be popu- lated with regional disease-pressure informa- tion in 2016. In 2016 new platforms will also be exploited including disease observations posted to an Agronomy blog site hosted on cereals-blog.ahdb.org.uk. Essential disease information will also be sent to subscribers to a new disease alert email service. Weve modelled the alerts on the AHDB Aphid News which sends out aphid monitoring data regu- larly to over one thousand subscribers says Watts. People interested in receiving timely and topical disease monitoring information are asked to sign up to the alerts by emailing cereals.subscriptionsahdb.org.uk. Breaking disease developments will also be promoted over Twitter on the organisations dedicated feed AHDB_Cereals. TO SUBMIT YOUR INDUSTRY NEWS SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASES TO NEWSISSUESINK.COM