North Dakota State University and Monsanto Company have announced a collaboration between the NDSU AgBiotechnology: Oilseed Development Center of Excellence and the St. Louis-based agricultural company. In this public-private partnership, scientists from both organizations will focus on cooperative research, technology development and educational activities that are expected to benefit North Dakota's agricultural sector, its producers and consumers. The initial focus of the collaboration will be oilseed improvement.

NDSU Vice President for Research, Creative Activities and Technology Transfer Philip Boudjouk said, "NDSU has played an integral role in North Dakota's $4 billion-per-year conventional agricultural economy. Partnerships such as this one facilitate the opportunity for additional cutting-edge innovations in agriculture into the 21st century."

NDSU Vice President for Agriculture and University Extension D.C. Coston said, "Results of these collaborations will expand the economic vitality of North Dakota. We are addressing a critical national priority while concurrently contributing to the prosperity of rural areas of our state."

NDSU's Ken Grafton said, "If North Dakota is to maintain its edge in crop production, NDSU must conduct research on important plant characteristics, understand how those characteristics respond to North Dakota's environment and deploy them in ways that create value for crop producers in both eastern and western North Dakota." Grafton serves as director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station; dean of the College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources; and director of the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence.

Grafton noted that NDSU and its outlying Research Extension Centers, like most land-grant universities, can benefit from the expertise, experience and support of private-sector organizations such as Monsanto.

The NDSU-Monsanto collaboration will give faculty and students working with the new AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence an opportunity to observe and learn from Monsanto's state-of-the-art crop improvement, animal science and biotechnology programs.

Grafton said, "Knowledge gained in the collaboration should help the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence identify viable opportunities for North Dakota growers to increase the productivity of their operations, add value to commodities they produce and expand opportunities in the emerging bioproducts industries in the state. Agriculture is North Dakota's No. 1 industry; we need to sustain and support it."

"North Dakota has a diverse and dynamic agriculture, and Monsanto scientists are eager to work with their NDSU counterparts to identify new opportunities for North Dakota farmers," said Ernesto Fajardo, Monsanto's U.S. crop production lead. "Biotechnology has helped North Dakota farmers diversify their crop enterprises."

"It is our hope that this collaboration will culminate in new ideas and the commercialization of unique technologies that will give NDSU, and especially young North Dakotans, a greater role in tomorrow's exciting agriculture," said Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley.

Bill Wilson, NDSU Agribusiness and Applied Economics professor and an assistant director of the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence, says many remarkable plant science innovations will be commercialized in the next decade. "North Dakota has accrued more than $700 million in economic benefits from crop biotechnology, and NDSU wants to ensure that North Dakota producers have access to these technologies and that our state's consumers benefit from recent advances in genomics, plant breeding and biotechnology. It is great to have the support of Monsanto. They value independent, third-party research."

Phil McClean, NDSU Plant Sciences professor and an assistant director of the AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence, said, "Collaborations with Monsanto will provide access to leading-edge technologies that have the potential to positively impact North Dakota production agriculture for years to come. Their research pipeline contains both consumer and producer traits that will be of value to all North Dakota producers and their customers."

Learn more about the NDSU AgBiotechnology Center of Excellence at www.ag.ndsu.edu/research/AgBiotechCE.htm.

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. For more information on Monsanto, see www.monsanto.com.