In Brazil, Israeli-perfected castor used for biofuel

23 Oct 14

In the biofuel business, the castor plant has become a sort of holy grail – much of that due to the efforts of Israel’s Evogene, which specializes in genetic modification of plants for industrial purposes. Brazil, South America’s largest country, could be next to benefit, as Evogene’s castor efforts are going commercial. Evogene this week signed a deal with Brazil’s Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) to develop technologies for the advancement of castor cultivation there. The cooperation will focus primarily on technologies for controlling castor-specific diseases as well as practices for castor cultivation in rotation with soybeans.Evogene has worked for years on developing strains of castor that would yield the highest amount of fuel while retaining high resistance to disease. The project will be handled by Evogene subsidiary Evofuel, which specializes in biofuels. The agreement, said Evogene, “will bring Embrapa’s substantial experience in research and development of castor together with Evofuel’s proprietary castor varieties, which are adapted to mechanized harvest and modern agricultural protocols, to offer Brazilian growers a full-scale solution for an economically viable, sustainable, and large-scale cultivation of castor.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-brazil-israeli-perfected-castor-used-for-biofuel/

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