The field trials will be operated in collaboration with Texas AgriLife Research, part of the Texas A&M System in the US, and South Cone Agriculture in Brazil.

Having recently completed two years of field trials under semi-arid conditions in Israel, the purpose of the field trials in Texas and Brazil is to evaluate the lines when grown in the two main target locations for future commercial growth, and further develop them to local conditions. The semi-arid land potentially available for castor commercial growth in these areas is estimated at more than 10 million hectares and the climate conditions are suitable for this purpose.

Consistent with our increased focus on castor project, the company recently announced that the collaboration with Orfuel, a US subsidiary of Ormat Industries, for the development of improved feedstock sources for biodiesel production, has been terminated. The field trials being announced today are a continuation of that effort, but moving forward now as a part of Evogene’s proprietary biofuel program.

—Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s President and CEO

Evogene is a developer of improved plant traits. The company’s proprietary product development platform combines state of the art computational gene discovery technology, plant and field validation capabilities and unique selection systems. Evogene’s current programs focus on the improvement of key plant traits, such as yield and stress tolerance, and the improvement of plants specifically for biofuel uses.