b'PARTNER CONTENTWhy a Long Legacy of Corn Breeding Makes a DifferenceC orn is one of the most critical crops globally. From humans, toparent lines and hybrids to move through the program and into farmer animals, the calories provided by these golden kernels makefields. Look for higher yields, better defense packages and improve life-changing differences around the world. MAS Seeds hasnutrient and water efficiency to bolster overall production.researched this crop for more than six decades and this means theyreIn the early 2000s, MAS Seeds expanded greatly into eastern poised to bring new, better products to market today faster than everand central Europe, adding research centers in Romania, Poland, before. Ukraine and Russia at that time. In April 2019, a short three years ago, In 1949, farmers in southwest France, through their coopera- the company bought a tropical breeding program and expanded its tive, started producing corn seeds to have more control over thebreeding capabilities into South America, Asia and West Africa.seed options coming to their farm and wanted eventually createThe company continues to invest in research, too. Since 2000 to solutions tailored to their field and soil needs. For a little over atoday, MAS has tripled the number of employees working in research decade, the group mastered seed production and finally in 1962and development.broke ground on its first Research and Development and started breeding corn hybrids. 60 YEARS OF CORN RESEARCHOver the past 60 years, the company has continued to developAfter gathering six decades of data on a single crop, MAS Seeds its research capabilities by adding sunflower research, expandingknows a lot about the genetic potential of this crop. Combine the 60 to nearly every continent and expanding their corn genetics andyears of data with thousands of annual research trials, and the data breeding programs. In 2018 the company rebranded to MAS Seedsbehind each corn hybrid the team brings to market is incredible.to better address the global nature of their offering and the variety ofSixty years is a lot of information and a lot of genetic gain and programs it provides. genetic diversity to review. This genetic diversity we have created Today, MAS Seeds is operating in Europe, West Africa, Asia andis huge and provides us with a gemplasm pool unlike any other the Americas with the same focus today as it had before: Help farmersGuillaume says. It really helps us to design and develop products maximize their output, sustainably. Their long history in corn breedingthat fit the need of the final users. sets them apart globally to help provide farmers with products suitedOur breeding programs shorten the time to deliver Genetic Gain, for their fields. shorten the time means making decisions based on stronger data MAS Seeds will continue to be an important player in the Cornacquisition and integration, in much bigger quantity and much better seed industry, Benot Ptiard, head of R&D at MAS Seeds To do so,accuracy, says Ptiard. With this larger dataset, it will allow us to we will have to take new challenges, to pick up our battles but alwaysdevelop more resilient products and then contributing actively to the keeping our farmer centricity to develop the best R&D strategy. collective effort to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Because of the long history of corn breeding at MAS Seeds, A LEGACY OF DEDICATION the team can use data to predict outcomes in the crop to help bring Sixty years of research and germplasm improvement in one crop hassolutions to farmers. This creates improved decision making at each created efficiencies, understanding and expertise for breeders, ulti- step in the breeding process, which ultimately means farmers gain mately benefitting farmers. access to better products, faster.The goals we have might be similar to 60 years ago, but the workWhether its addressing the challenge of Climate Change, input has completely changed, says Colin Guillaume, MAS Seeds head ofoptimization, a troubling disease or any other problem farmers face, corn breeding. We went from entirely phenotypic selection to a morethe key message is this: MAS Seeds really wants to support the technological selection. We have so much more data than we did infarmer and find solutions that support farmers, Guillaume says. Today, the pastgenotype and environment datathat helps breeders asdeveloping WATERLOCK and GREEN+ corn hybrids are the best exam-they make decisions that help farmers. ples of genetic innovations MAS Seeds can bring to farmers to tackle For breeders, the overall job remains the same: select the bestthe climate challenges.EUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 37'