Variability in weather has always affected agricultural production worldwide due to crops high dependency on specific climate conditions. However, as climate change progresses, greater impacts on agricultural production are expected due to variations in the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, increasing temperatures, increasing carbon dioxide concentration, as well as changes in nutrient levels and soil moisture.

To make matters worse, many pests, weeds, and fungi thrive under increased CO2 levels, wetter climates and warmer temperatures, all posing serious challenges to crop production. Furthermore, as the global population is expected to exceed 9.6 billion by 2050, food production needs to increase by approximately 70% while utilizing less water and land.To meet this challenge, agricultural production needs to become more resource efficient considering over 80% of freshwater in the US is used for agriculture. Farmers will have to adopt new technologies, farming practices, and planting decisions to increase crop productivity.With this in mind, many scientists and entrepreneurs are interested in developing crops that can produce more food under increased temperature and water-restricted conditions.

Asilomar Bio is Developing a Crop Protection Product That Deals with Environmental Stresses

The majority of crop protection products are composed of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, but a San Francisco-based company, Asilomar Bio, is developing a product that deals with environmental stresses.They are specifically developing seed treatments and foliar spray products (synthetic plant hormones) that help crops combat parasitic weeds (leading to healthier plants), and use water more efficiently (leading to increased crop yields).Their first product, which has already shown positive results in field trials across the United States, is set to become available to farmers in 2017. The market for their products could be substantial in drought-stricken California as well as the Midwest, where they have conducted several trials on corn, soy, wheat, tomatoes, and lettuce.

Asilomar Bio Headed By Strong Leadership

Originally trained as a cell biologist, Travis Bayer, the founder and CTO of Asilomar Bio, became interested in synthetic biology during his PhD studies at CalTech, where he explored how he could use non-coding RNA to control gene expression and metabolic pathways.Later on, he pursued his interest in environmental applications by engineering genetic circuits to transform non-food biomass into biofuels and other high-value compounds. Travis was one of the group leaders recruited to the Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation at Imperial College in 2009.He then went on to Oxford University to program microbes to enhance agricultural production. There, he and his team developed a low cost herbicide to eradicate parasitic weeds in sub-Saharan Africa. Field trials in Kenya showed significant improvements in harvests and reductions in weed numbers.With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and DFID, Dr. Bayer (who will be speaking at SynBioBeta San Francisco 2015) and CEO Eric Davidson formed Asilomar Bio to move the technology into the market. Recently, the company announced a $3M Series A round in June, co-lead by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures and Fall Line Capital.

Travis Bayer will be speaking at SynBioBeta San Francisco 2015, November 4th – 6th, at Mission Bay Conference Center.Check out our brief interview with CTO Travis Bayer:

What is AB01 and how was it developed? The product can be applied as a foliar spray or seed treatment -- how does the product work?

AB01, our lead active ingredient, is a bio-inspired chemical that acts as a plant signaling compound. We have found that application of the chemical to crops enhances the efficiency of water capture and transport by the plant. In the field, this leads to plants that yield more grain and experience less water-related stress.

Are you working on two different products (one for drought and one for parasitic weeds)? What other environmental stressors is the company interested in?

Our parasitic weed product is a related chemistry with a humanitarian application in smallhold farming. We are broadly interested in sustainable ways to improve harvest yields and resource efficiency in agriculture. While our main focus is on chemical active ingredients for effective water use, we are interested in the chemistry and biology of plant abiotic stress response.

By applying the product, how much can harvest yields increase? How does the technology differ from others in the industry?

We have seen double digit percentage increases. In corn, this can be 20-30 bushels per acre. We believe this chemistry could be an entirely new class of crop protection product, adding a 'fourth category' to the established crop protection categories of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.

What is your greatest achievement to date?

Validation of our technology in the field and on the farm. We quickly moved from lab and greenhouse proof of concept into field trials, because at the end of the day, farmers are interested in how much yield and increased revenue they can expect to see when they apply your product.

What have been your biggest challenges?

Agriculture is slow! We are constrained by the natural growing seasons for the crops we work in. We have offset this by doing southern hemisphere trials, but we are still at the mercy of the seasons. The other big one is weather: we have had trials that experienced flooding, hail, or were destroyed by animals. This doesn't tend to happen in the lab...

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

Our near term goals are to launch our chemistry into the market. To get there, we need to gain EPA approval (which is well underway) and build relationships with early adopter farmers and with various distribution channel partners. Beyond launching our first product, we are really excited about this entire area of science. We feel that this chemistry is the 'tip of the spear' for an entirely new class of chemical, biological, and genetic products for increasing crop yield and enhancing resource efficiency.