An agreement that calls for over a billion dollars in investment is pretty big news. That’s the kind of joint investment BASF and Monsanto are pledging to make together over the coming years with their new R&D agreement. They say the agreement is effective immediately.

Over the life of the collaboration, the two companies will dedicate a joint budget of potentially $1.5 billion/euro 1.2 billion to fund a dedicated pipeline of yield and stress tolerance traits for corn, soybeans, cotton and canola. The joint pipeline will include the companies’ existing and planned yield and stress tolerance programs and be comprised of projects generated by independent plant biotechnology discovery and research from each company. The first product developed as part of this collaboration is expected to be commercialized in the first half of the next decade.