Blackgrass costs UK agriculture hundreds of millions of pounds annually through reduced crop yields and increased input costs, which could rise to £1 billion a year in losses if blackgrass resistance to herbicides is allowed to spread unabated, according to Rothamsted Research. Novel mode of action herbicides are widely agreed to be the key to fighting resistance, but none have become available to English farmers in the last 35 years, leaving them with increasingly limited options for effective control.
Moa has built on breakthrough research from Oxford University to successfully identify multiple novel herbicidal modes of action capable of breaking weed resistance, several of which have already shown excellent and consistent performance in five seasons of English and international field trials. Among them is a particularly exciting post-emergent herbicide showing strong efficacy on English blackgrass in cereal crops in glasshouse and field trials.
The new Defra funding, which has been matched by nearly two million pounds of investment from Oxford Science Enterprises, a private sector investor, will help accelerate these advanced programmes towards commercialisation, creating a portfolio of new tools for farmers which are effective, safe, affordable and sustainable.
Farming Minister Stephen Morgan said:
“Blackgrass is one of the toughest challenges facing our arable farmers, reducing yields and making it harder to grow crops. That’s why we’re backing Moa Technology’s work through our Farming Innovation Investor Partnership to develop new herbicides to tackle it, alongside increasing farming innovation funding to £123 million this year.
By investing in innovation and backing the brilliant researchers and businesses developing solutions for farmers, we’re helping to build a more productive, sustainable and resilient farming sector for the future.”
Dr Virginia Corless, Chief Executive Officer of Moa Technology, said:
“Winning this funding award from the Farming Innovation Investor Partnership enables us to accelerate the development of novel herbicides which offer English farmers genuine hope in the fight to control blackgrass. We are delighted to have received this support for our vital work and look forward to working closely with Defra, industry partners and the farming community.”
About the Farming Innovation Investor Partnership
The FIIP is delivered by Innovate UK in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and aims to support innovative agri-food businesses developing technologies that can improve productivity, sustainability and resilience across UK agriculture.
About Moa Technology
Moa Technology’s platform has already generated one of the most advanced pipelines of novel herbicide modes of action in the industry, with multiple programmes progressing through greenhouse and field evaluation. The company, which was spun out of Oxford University in 2017 and has research facilities in Oxford and North Yorkshire, already has four R&D partnerships with leading agriculture and crop protection companies in the US, Europe and Australia. Moa recently secured a £22.2 million Series C financing round to support the next stage of its growth.
ENDS