India’s push to produce more of its own cooking oil is getting a boost from a new partnership aimed at developing higher-performing mustard varieties through gene editing.
US-based agricultural technology company Cibus and Indian crop solutions firm Crystal Crop Protection have signed an agreement to develop gene-edited traits in Brassica juncea, the mustard species central to India’s oilseed production.
The partnership targets a crop that is deeply embedded in India’s food economy. The country grows mustard on about 8.5 million hectares, or 21 million acres, making it the world’s largest mustard producer. Yet India still imports more than half of the edible oil it consumes — roughly 17 million tonnes a year, primarily palm and soybean oil.
The companies say improved mustard varieties could help farmers raise incomes while increasing domestic production of edible oil.
“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, 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 collaboration comes as India seeks to sharply increase domestic oilseed production.
The National Mission on Edible Oils - Oilseeds, launched in 2024, has set a target of increasing India’s oilseed harvest from about 39 million tonnes in 2022-23 to roughly 70 million tonnes by 2030-31. Genome editing is among the technologies identified under the national effort.
Mustard remains a key opportunity. Average Indian yields stand at about 1,200 to 1,400 kilograms per hectare, compared with 1,800 to 2,000 kilograms in leading mustard-producing countries.
The companies argue that conventional breeding has struggled for decades to close that gap.
Cibus says its platform can make precise changes to a plant’s existing genes without adding foreign DNA. That approach, it says, can accelerate the development of improved varieties compared with conventional breeding.
Under the agreement, Crystal Crop will work with Cibus to develop and evaluate gene-edited mustard traits and will hold an exclusive license to commercialize those traits in India.
Crystal Crop will bring its mustard breeding and production program, knowledge of the Indian seed market and a distribution network spanning more than 14,823 independent partners across 23 states and four union territories, as of March 31, 2026.
That reach could be critical if the technology produces commercially viable varieties: the objective is not simply to develop improved mustard, but to get the resulting seed into farmers’ fields at scale.
The partnership also enters a regulatory environment that has provided a pathway for gene-edited crops that do not contain foreign DNA.
In 2022, India’s environment ministry determined that crops modified through edits to their own genes, without the introduction of foreign DNA, fall outside the country’s rules governing genetically modified organisms.
Crystal Crop says the partnership is designed around the practical needs of Indian farmers and the country’s broader oilseed ambitions.
“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.”
For Cibus, the deal expands its footprint in India and underscores its strategy of working with regional seed and crop companies to move gene-edited traits from technology platforms into locally adapted crops.
For Crystal Crop, the prize is potentially bigger: a faster route to mustard varieties that can produce more from every acre — and help India reduce its dependence on imported cooking oil.
