A new project with funding of €4.9m from the European Commission aims to improve drought tolerance in both maize and teff crops.

Booster is a four-year project and is being carried out in conjunction with BioAtlantis Ltd, which is based in Tralee, Co Kerry.

The project aims to develop new varieties of drought-tolerant crops by exploiting natural genetic variations to achieve drought-tolerant genotypes, and by developing plant biostimulants derived from living organisms.

Strategies for goal achievement

Two strategies will be implemented to achieve Booster’s project goals.

Firstly, a new approach will identify genomic variants in regions associated with drought tolerance. Novel regulatory elements underlying resilience will inform efficient breeding efforts to create new drought-tolerant cereal varieties.

Secondly, novel molecular priming technologies from seaweed and microbial-based biostimulants will be developed by BioAtlantis Ltd and Aphea.Bio (Belgium) respectively, as an eco-friendly approach for improving drought resilience.

The two strategies will be tested in two cereals with different degrees of responsiveness to drought: European maize and Ethiopian teff - a cereal with a high genetic similarity to the desiccation tolerant sister species Eragrostis nindensis.

The project team includes European and international academics as well as industry to collectively ensure that the expected impacts are achieved in the near future.

BioAtlantis is an Irish-owned biotechnology company, employing over 50 people at its headquarters in Tralee. The company is a leading innovator in the Irish bioeconomy and sells in over 30 countries globally.

The company’s involvement in Booster builds on its strong reputation as a distributor in the European biotechnology sector, and in the delivery of environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions to crop growers worldwide.