Last spring Indigo launched their first product dedicated to helping farmers grow food and fiber in a sustainable manner. Now the company is releasing preliminary data from Indigo Cotton, a seat treatment based on naturally occurring in-plant microbes. The product was developed to improve water efficiency while offering high yields during water stress. Grower data from West Texas and Texas A&M shows an 11 percent average increase in yield, despite severe water stress during the growing season– without increasing water or chemical use.

The data are consistent with the results of four years of controlled field trials. They inform Indigo’s 2017 product selection, as the company identifies the most effective combination of microbial treatment, seed variety, and other conditions.

“These results represent another promising step in what we hope will be the next significant innovation in agriculture,” says David Perry, CEO and Director of Indigo. “One of the advantages of Indigo’s unique partnership model with growers is that we can gather this type of data from commercial fields, which helps us to improve applications of the plant microbiome, in cotton and other crops, in years to come.”