Performance Plants Inc. Announces Equity Financing - Accelerates Food
Crop and Biofuels: KINGSTON, ON, July 21 /CNW/ - Performance Plants
Inc. ("PPI"), a leading global agricultural biotechnology company with
research and development facilities in Kingston, Ontario, Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan and Waterloo, New York, announced today the completion of a
$13 million equity financing. PPI has developed and patented a range of
stress-resistant crop seed technologies (weatherproofing "traits") that
deliver higher yields and more consistent and cost effective harvests
for farmers and feedstock suppliers under conditions of environmental
stress such as drought and excessive heat or cold. The company's traits
are being evaluated for food crops both internally and in partnership
with world-leading seed companies including DuPont business Pioneer
Hi-Bred, Syngenta Biotechnology, Stine Seed Company, RiceTec Inc. and
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. The company's breakthrough Yield
Protection Technology(R) ("YPT(R)") is at the heart of its suite of
technologies. YPT(R) enables plants to better tolerate drought
conditions and to recover faster when watered. Extensive field trials of
YPT(R) corn are underway for the third year in the United States, and
field trials will begin in South America later in the year.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2008/21/c6047.html
Crop Residue May Be Too Valuable To Harvest For Biofuels: Converting
crop residues into ethanol may seem like a great idea; however, that
might not be advisable for farmers growing crops without irrigation in
regions receiving less than 25 inches of precipitation annually In the
ongoing rush to develop biofuels, one idea that has some support is the
conversion of crop residue into ethanol. Ann Kennedy, a
USDA-Agricultural Research Service soil scientist and adjunct professor
of crop and soil sciences at Washington State University says using crop
residue for biofuel could be a problem for farmers growing crops without
irrigation in regions receiving less than 25 inches of precipitation
annually. "With cultivation, organic matter tends to decline in most
places around the world," she said. "In the more than 100 years that we
have been cultivating soils in the Palouse,"-the wheat growing region of
Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho and Northeast Oregon-"we have lost
about half of the original. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/257635
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