Castor cultivation firm Casterra Ag, a subsidiary of Evogene, is set to expand its production of castor seeds in Africa after signing agreements with existing and new seed producers in the country.
The agreements were expected to add approximately 500 tonnes to Casterra’s total castor production this year and enable the company to complete standing orders by the end of 2024, Evogene said on 21 May.
Expanding the number of seed producers the company worked with was also expected to reduce production risks, Casterra CEO Yoash Zohar said.
Casterra has developed its high-yielding castor bean seeds from a collection of more than 300 castor lines from over 40 different geographic and climatic regions.
The company applies advanced breeding methods using Evogene’s Generator AI tech-engine, which uses plant genomics tools to enable industrial-scale production of castor beans.
The castor is used to produce oil for use in bio-based industries, such as biopolymers and biofuels.
Evogene is a leading computational biology company based in Israel.
