MA Inds, Cibus form venture to develop crop traits

JERUSALEM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Israel's MA Industries MAIN.TA and Cibus Global said on Monday they would form a joint venture to develop proprietary crop traits, mainly for the European market.

MA, the world's largest maker of generic agrochemicals, will invest up to $37 million over five years in the venture, it said in a statement.

MA also said it had entered into a strategic equity alliance with Cibus that would allow it to gradually acquire up to 50.1 percent of Cibus' equity.

"In addition to yielding significant economic advantages to farmers growing these important crops, MA and Cibus believe that the newly developed traits will enable more efficient and environmentally responsible usage of agricultural crop inputs over the crop production cycle," the companies said.

Under the deal, Cibus will develop ways to use its proprietary technology to improve MA's existing crop protection products.

These traits will be commercialised in high-performance seed lines in cooperation with leading seed companies and will allow MA to participate in capturing the value of trait-based crop protection.

The venture will develop these traits using the Rapid Trait Development System technology developed by Cibus, which enables much faster and more efficient trait development than traditional plant breeding techniques, the statement said.

By utilising the cell's own gene repair system to specifically modify a gene sequence, RTDS technology imitates a biological process that frequently occurs in nature.

"Our joint development plan targets untapped and promising areas and addresses significant market opportunities," Yoav Zeif, MA's senior vice president for product development and registration, said in the statement.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Simon Jessop)