Agricultural technology group Plant Health Care (LON:PHC) has signed an exclusive agreement with Germains Seed Technology, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods (LON:ABF), to develop and market Plant Health Care's Harpin proteins as a seed treatment for sugar beets worldwide in combination with Germains’ seed priming technologies. The combined treatments will have the potential to be used on all sugar beet, which annually occupy more than 10m acres worldwide. Shares in Plant Health Care rose by 1.7% to 120p during the morning.

Germains, part of the British Sugar Group, is the largest independent seed treatment company in the world. It develops and markets seed priming technologies, and through its Advantage and XBEET systems is a major provider of priming treatments for sugar beet seed. It currently has a market share in sugar beet of over 40% in the US, over 35% in the Western and Central European markets and a strong presence elsewhere in the world.

Harpin is a specific protein that activates a plant's innate ability to protect itself and enhance growth and yield. The technology offers yield improvement, the suppression of pests like nematodes and protection against damaging diseases, as well as additive plant health benefits.

In trials, Harpin, applied as a seed treatment, has been shown to significantly reduce nematode infestations and increase yields on a variety of crops. Plant Health Care currently has a licence in place with Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) for the use of a specific Harpin protein on major row crops and vegetables. This sugar beet licence is the first of several agreements currently being pursued by the company in order to deliver Harpin seed treatments to an increasing range of crops and to a larger acreage worldwide.

Germains will invest in the development of Harpin with the goal to include it as a component in its next generation of sugar beet seed treatments. Financial terms of the agreement are confidential but are consistent with the format of the company's other partnering arrangements. In May, Plant Health Care signed an agreement with Legacy Seeds Inc, one of the major players in the alfalfa animal crop feed industry, over the development of a combination Myconate and Harpin product on alfalfa seeds in the US. Under the terms of the four year agreement, Plant Health Care granted Legacy the exclusive rights to develop and market the Myconate…

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