WESTERN PRODUCER — Sclerotinia was a problem for canola growers in northeastern and east-central Saskatchewan last year.
A provincial government sclerotinia incidence map shows that in many canola fields, the incidence of the disease was 20 to 40.
Incidence is the percentage of canola plants in a particular field with symptoms of a disease.
Given the number of affected fields and the percentage of plants with symptoms, it’s a safe bet that .
Canola growers rely on fungicides to control sclerotinia, but in a few years, there could be another tool in the toolbox.
Cibus, a company with headquarters in San Diego, is hoping to on the market by 2029.
“It’s in the field already. It’s being tested,” said Peter Beetham, co-founder and president of Cibus, a firm that uses gene editing to develop unique crop traits, such as disease resistance.
“We’re pretty conservative on our launch dates. As a public company, we want to give guidance that we feel very comfortable with…. Farmers should see that (trait) in three to four years.”
Cibus, though, will not be selling canola seed to Canadian farmers in 2029.
Its business model is centred on developing and licensing traits to seed companies for major crops such as canola, rice and soybeans.
“What we (are) really good at is gene editing and making traits,” Beetham said.
“We don’t see people like BASF or Corteva as competitors; we see them as potential (customers).”
Cibus had been in the seed business under the brand name Falco. It sold herbicide tolerant canola varieties to growers on the Prairies and the northern U.S. Plains.
The company got out of that business to focus on gene editing and crop traits.
“Cibus has developed a current pipeline of five productivity traits, including important traits for weed management in rice, pod shatter reduction and sclerotinia (disease) resistance,” its website says.
Those traits are the “near-term focus” for the company.
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