San Diego, California, USA and New Delhi, India
September 28, 2026
Collaboration pairs Cibus’ platform for improving a plant’s own genes with Crystal Crop’s mustard varieties and its reach across India, with the goal of putting better-performing seed in growers’ hands in a fraction of the time of conventional breeding
Crystal Crop Protection Limited (“Crystal Crop”), an Indian crop solutions company, and Cibus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBUS) a technology company that uses biology to produce sustainable ingredients and helps farmers grow more food with fewer inputs, today announced an agreement to develop gene-edited traits in Brassica juncea (“Mustard”). Mustard is the oilseed at the heart of Indian cooking, and India grows more of it than any other country, on roughly 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres). Even so, India imports more than half of the edible oil it consumes, roughly 17 million tonnes a year, most of it palm and soybean oil. A better-performing mustard crop could mean more income for the grower and more of India’s cooking oil grown at home.
Cibus helps make good crops better, changing the speed and scale of plant breeding. Its platform makes precise changes to a plant’s own genes, with no foreign DNA added, and can deliver improved varieties in a fraction of the time of conventional breeding. Under the agreement, Crystal Crop will collaborate with Cibus to develop gene-edited traits in Brassica juncea and evaluate and commercialize such traits under an exclusive license in India. Crystal Crop brings its mustard production program, its knowledge of India’s seed market, and a network of more than 14,823 independent distribution partners across 23 states and four union territories across India, as of March 31, 2026, so improved seed can reach farmers at scale.
“Mustard matters to India the way few crops matter to any country. Improving it has real consequences for farmers and for the country’s food supply,” said Peter Beetham, Ph.D., a plant scientist who co-founded Cibus and serves as its President and Chief Operating Officer. “We have spent 25 years learning how to make precise improvements to a plant’s own genes, and we do it in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional breeding. Crystal Crop knows the Indian farmer and the Indian mustard market. Together we can put better seed in growers’ hands.”
The work answers a stated national priority. India’s National Mission on Edible Oils - Oilseeds, launched in 2024, aims to raise the country’s oilseed harvest from about 39 million tonnes (in 2022-23) to roughly 70 million tonnes by 2030-31 and names genome editing among the technologies it will use to get there. Indian mustard yields average 1,200 to 1,400 kilograms per hectare, against 1,800 to 2,000 in the leading producing countries, and breeders have struggled for decades to close that gap with conventional methods.
India has also drawn the line that gives this work a clear path to the field. In 2022, India’s environment ministry determined that crops improved through edits to their own genes, with no foreign DNA introduced, fall outside its rules for genetically modified organisms.
“Crystal Crop is customized for Indian farmers through research and development including by collaborations with various multi-national companies, delivering relevant solutions that aim to enhance farm economics, yield, productivity and profitability,” said Ankur Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Crystal Crop. “Pairing our mustard variety and our reach across India with Cibus’ platform technologies, we strive to offer growers a mustard that returns more from every acre. This is supposed to be a practical gain for farmers and for India’s oilseed economy.”
This agreement extends Cibus’ work in India and demonstrates how Cibus partners with regional seed and crop companies to bring improved crops to the farmers who need them.
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