Drought tolerance

Bringing less water and stable yields together

Climate change keeps posing new challenges that must be overcome. Weather extremes such as drought are expected to increase in the future. This increases the risks of sustained heat, and dry weather could lead to crop failures. Climate change could therefore be responsible for new pests and diseases that were previously considered unremarkable. Against this background, KWS plant breeders are working on new, adapted varieties, to ensure the stability of agricultural yields.

In addition to yield, yield stability is becoming key due to accelerating climate change – crop resilience to drought and stress is playing an increasingly important role.

Volker Utesch, Head of the Business Unit Corn for Europe

ClimaCONTROL3:

Triple control instead of drought stress!

Under the name ClimaCONTROL3, KWS offers innovative, drought-tolerant maize varieties that originate from a specially designed research and breeding program. The number 3 in the name stands for the fact that drought stress can affect plants in very different ways, depending on the growth phase in which it occurs - before, during or after flowering.

Discover more about climate change resilience

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Beat the heat with our Magma Collection

Warm days, cool nights. That is the ideal situation for green bean production. Unfortunately, nights are getting warmer in several bean production areas around the globe resulting in crop failures due to poor pod setting from heat stress. While the temperature is climbing, there is also more pressure from insects and diseases. The Magma Collection represents a very special breeding success that combats heat stress - a development from Pop Vriend Seeds, a member of the KWS Group.

With new paths against Drought

KWS conducts extensive research on drought stress in plants, thereby supporting farmers in markets particularly hard hit by heat – KWS plant breeders will manage to improve tolerance to extreme variability and to drought and disease.

Grain sorghum - a real crop for the future!

Since 2013, KWS has been breeding sorghum for grain production with the targets of high yielding, high disease tolerance and early to mid early maturity – which is getting more and more important in times of climate change.