- Monsanto (NYSE:MON-OLD +0.8%) says U.S. farmers next year will be able to plant corn seeds pre-coated with microscopic fungi that promote plant growth, in the first commercial product to emerge from its three-year-old partnership with Danish company Novozymes.
- MON says field trials showed the new microbial would increase corn yield by about three bushels/acre, or 2%; it plans to add the product to all corn seeds sold in the U.S. for the 2017 sowing season and will extend it later to other markets.
- “We believe it could be applied to more than 90M acres by 2025 and become one of the biggest biological products" in the ag industry, says a Novozymes exec.
- Separately, MON says proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis both recommend that shareholders approve Bayer's proposed takeover.