Innovation

Plant breeding for sustainable agriculture

The goal of our breeding program is to provide farmers with precisely those varieties that meet their operational needs. Whether conventional or organic farming, we see no difference. We offer seed that is adapted to the climate and soil conditions of various regions, offers increased yield and reduces pesticide use.

To achieve this, continuous and intense research activities are required. It takes up to ten years for a new variety to be approved and become available to the market. Every year we invest about 18.5 percent of our revenue in research and development projects, facilitating a yield improvement of up to two percent per year.

Objectives

Of course, the yield is what matters most. There are, however, many possibilities and “parameters” to achieve this annual increase of 2%, which vastly differ by crop.

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Breeding methods

The best plant breeding practices still include crossing and selection. However, the new methods of genome editing are the ones that shape the future.

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Projects

Innovative approaches, new technologies and collaboration play increasingly important roles in new seed development.

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Let’s talk about the future: Genome Editing

New breeding methods and genome editing

What exactly is genome editing? How does it
work? And is it genetic engineering or not? We answer and discuss these and many
other questions here.

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Are you already familiar with our World of Farming?

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Battling the harmful Cercospora fungus with big data, light and artificial intelligence

The earlier Cercospora leaf spot is stopped, the fewer the losses that sugarbeet farmers will suffer. In the “DataPlant” project, three research institutions and companies are combining their farming and optics expertise in an effort to automatically spot the fungus at an early stage – with the help of light, sensors, weather data and artificial intelligence.

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China: How plant breeding is revolutionizing the corn harvest

High planting density, standing power in a difficult climate and smaller corn cobs: Plant breeding and the targeted use of seeds bring Chinese farmers a more bountiful harvest and make it possible for them to rely more heavily on the use of machines. And with that, the days of hard field work are over for many people.

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A field with a future: Artificial intelligence for better seed

Artificial intelligence is gaining in importance in seed breeding. KWS is currently developing and conducting tests with a field robot in the U.S. to find out how plant traits can be identified automatically and precisely to support variety selection decisions and enable conclusions that will help improve yields and resistances in agricultural crops.

Our worldwide KWS breeding network

Our current key research and development figures:

		2018/2019	2017/2018	+/-
R&D employees	Ø	2,053	1,920	6.9 %
Percentage R&D employees of the entire workforce	in %	37	37.3	-
R&D cost	€ million	205.6	197.7	4.0 %
R&D ratio¹	in %	18.5	18.5	-
Marketing approvals for new varieties		464	402	15.4 %