Partner News: KWS Participates in Grand Farm Visionary Agricultural Initiative

Bloomington, MN, June 28, 2022: The KWS group, with headquarters in Einbeck, Germany, announces participation in the Grand Farm Education and Research Initiative. The KWS Digital Innovation Accelerator (DIA) team has committed cultivation of five acres of experimental sugarbeets on Grand Farm to identify and develop sustainable farming practices benefitting sugarbeet, and in the future, all row crop growers. The Grand Farm initiative is designed to inspire a collaboration among businesses, organizations, and researchers to facilitate agriculture technology innovation.

“All of us at DIA are pleased to be working with the Grand Farm on new agtech and precision farming initiatives,” says Mike Boyher, Manager of Digital Innovation at KWS. “Participation with Grand Farm supports DIAs mission to develop innovative, ground-breaking, farming tools and methods that improve the lives of our global farmers. Our objective is to ‘break’ current farming ecosystems to generate innovative ideas and learn from the results. Fields may not look pretty, yet those that are disease and pest infested will offer us the greatest insight as we further develop new breeding solutions and technologies that benefit our farmers. Working with the Grand Farm team supports this mission and really allows us to try KWS developed, innovative tools in a safe, secure environment.”

On Thursday, June 30, Duane Bernhardson, Business Development Manager, KWS, will speak at Grand Farm’s “Cultivate Conference” on the topic of innovation at KWS. “As KWS becomes more visible and well known, it continues to make a significant investment in global farmers and agricultural technology. Through the KWS commitment to innovation, resulting in the cultivation of new precision ag tools, KWS is at the forefront of leading-edge technologies that will benefit the global farming community helping to secure food and feed for the future.”

The KWS DIA group has numerous projects underway that are at the forefront of precision farming. Additionally, the DIA team has focused on Smart Field Research, Automated & Connected Farm, Farmer of the Future, Seed to Table, and Adapting to Climate Change. These focus areas have led the team to work in artificial intelligence, IoT, analytics, robotics, blockchain, and aerial imagery. KWS is committed to these initiatives through continued financial support to this team of progressive, agriculturally focused professionals.

About KWS

KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies with more than 6,000 employees in 70 countries. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for more than 160 years. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to increase farmers’ yields and to improve resistance to diseases, pests, and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invests approximately 15% of turnover in research and development.

For more information: www.kws.com. Follow us on Twitter® at https://twitter.com/KWS_Group.