Moa Technology and Corteva have entered a multi-year research and development collaboration to accelerate the discovery of new herbicides with novel modes of action for managing herbicide-resistant weeds.

The collaboration will combine Moa’s proprietary herbicide discovery platforms with Corteva’s herbicide research and development expertise to identify new weed control solutions for growers facing increasingly complex resistance challenges.

“Moa’s core strength is discovering genuinely novel tools to tackle rapidly evolving, yield-damaging weed threats,” said Dr. Virginia Corless, chief executive officer of Moa Technology. “The more commercial research collaborations we undertake with industry-leading companies, the faster we can accelerate delivery of safe, effective and affordable new solutions to farmers’ fields.”

Herbicide resistance continues to reduce the effectiveness of existing products in many cropping systems, increasing the need for new modes of action. Since being spun out of the University of Oxford in 2017, Moa has focused on discovering synthetic and biological herbicide compounds designed to overcome resistant weeds.

According to the company, its discovery platforms have screened more than 850,000 compounds over the past three years, identifying more than 80 potential new mode-of-action areas. Its most advanced candidates are now in their fifth season of international field trials, where they have shown consistent activity against several major weed species.

“By combining complementary strengths, we aim to leverage Moa’s new approaches in herbicide discovery, and are focused on addressing the evolving challenges farmers face from weed resistance,” said Ashish Batra, vice president of crop health research and development for Corteva.

The agreement marks Moa’s fourth major industry collaboration in the past two years. It follows partnerships with Certis Belchim, Gowan Company and Nufarm aimed at advancing the development and commercialization of new herbicide technologies.