Corteva, DowDuPont Agriculture Division, and ZeaKal Announce R&D Collaboration

Corteva Agriscience, DowDuPont's Agriculture Division, and ZeaKal, a plant science company focused on improving agricultural productivity, announced this Wednesday (27) a strategic R&D collaboration. Together, they will advance ZeaKal's technology to help improve seed quality and increase crop yields by improving photosynthetic capacity and plant efficiency.

“As part of Corteva Agriscience’s mission to provide farmers with complete solutions that help maximize their productivity, we are excited to collaborate with ZeaKal to develop its improved agronomic yield seed technology,” said Neal Gutterson, chief technology officer, Corteva Agriscience . “This collaboration reflects Corteva Agriscience’s approach to innovation, leveraging collaborations around the world to pursue transformative technologies that increase sustainability and provide consumers with healthier food options.”

ZeaKal and Corteva Agriscience will work together to develop and test ZeaKal's PhotoSeed technology, which uses a novel mechanism to increase a plant's intrinsic photosynthetic capacity. PhotoSeed plants can harvest more sunlight and fix more carbon dioxide, which allows for a significant improvement in seed and grain yields. PhotoSeed also improves the quality of seed composition by increasing oil and protein content. For farmers, this means increasing productivity and profitability without additional inputs. For consumers, this also means agriculture that can provide better nutrition in a smaller environmental footprint.

"Corteva Agriscience is the ideal business to help us accelerate PhotoSeed's path to commercialization," said Han Chen, CEO of ZeaKal. “Corteva Agriscience brings extensive expertise and a bench of resources that will advance the development of our technology and ensure PhotoSeed meets the gold standard that farmers expect. The collaboration furthers our mission to sustainably feed the growing population while meeting growing environmental and consumer demands.”

As part of the alliance, Corteva Agriscience will take a minority equity stake in ZeaKal. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.