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Jos van
Boxtel
Principal Scientist,
Arcadia Biosciences
Inc.
Davis, CA, USA
Finding New Business
Opportunities with
Sustainability in
Mind
Monday, September 13, 2010
4:00 - 4:30 pm
Abstract:
Nitrogen Use
Efficiency (NUE) and
Water Use Efficiency
(WUE) are two
agronomic traits
which can create
sustainability,
reduce the
environmental
footprint and
increase additional
value capture of
food, feed and
energy crops.
NUE contributes to
more efficient use
of fertilizer by the
plant and,
therefore, reduced
fertilizer use. This
translates into a
dual effect: less
run-off of unused
nitrogen in
waterways and lower
conversion into
nitrous oxide, a
highly potent
greenhouse gas. WUE,
which is defined as
sustained crop
growth under
suboptimal watering
conditions, can
affect the water
footprint of
agriculture crops,
by using less high
quality fresh water.
Besides value
capture from reduced
fertilizer and
irrigation cost,
additional value can
be gained from
reduced carbon and
water footprint.
Both may be valued
in carbon credits
which are tied to
calculations of
reduced fertilizer
and water use
through NUE-WUE
crops.
Combining both
traits could induce
considerable input
reduction in
agriculture and
therefore introduce
a certain level of
sustainability.
Sustainability is
especially desired
in the production of
energy crops, where
vast areas of
suboptimal land will
be used, which are
unsuitable for
higher value food
and feed crops.
Arcadia is
developing agronomic
and product quality
traits which are
giving growers
alternative and
financially
beneficial ways of
using suboptimal
land and
simultaneously
creating value from
reduced
environmental
footprint.
Biography
Manager Plant
Transformation Group
2003-current
Lead Scientist GHG
Reduction Program
2009-current
Jos holds a Ph.D. in
Agricultural
Sciences - Plant
Breeding from
Wageningen
University in the
Netherlands. His
Ph.D. research work
was conducted at
CIRAD, Montpellier,
France, studying the
genetic
transformation of
coffee. From 1995 to
1999 he was a
post-doc studying
virus resistance in
cowpea through
genetic engineering
at the John Innes
Centre in the UK.
From 1999 to 2002,
he returned to CIRAD,
this time studying
salt and drought
tolerance in rice
through genetic
engineering. And
before joining
Arcadia in January
2003, he had worked
1 year with prof.
Eduardo Blumwald at
UC Davis on salt
tolerant rice. In
addition to
production of
transgenic plants
for the various
Arcadia projects,
Jos’ Plant
Transformation Group
works on innovating
plant gene
modification
techniques which can
be used for
enhancing
environmental and
health benefits of
agricultural crops.
Since last year, Jos
has the additional
task of leading the
science group in the
Arcadia GHG
Reduction Program.
