Monsanto has signed a global licensing agreement with South Korean biotech ToolGen, gaining access to its CRISPR gene-editing technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"This agreement further validates our platform and demonstrates the value that gene-editing will hold for the future of both agriculture and biotechnology," said Jongmoon Kim, ToolGen's CEO.

The US agrochemical giant, which is currently in the process of being acquired by Germany’s Bayer, will use ToolGen's suite of proprietary tools to develop improved and sustainable crops.

Tom Adams, Monsanto’s vice president of biotechnology, said the company is continuing to bolster and diversify its research capabilities and looks forward to leveraging the CRISPR platform to meet the needs of farmers while answering consumer demand for food options.

CRISPR is a new method of gene-editing that offers an easy and precise way to modify crops to create traits such as disease resistance and drought tolerance. In most cases, it is said to be cheaper than traditional breeding techniques or older genetic engineering methods.

Research has also shown that the resulting plants have no traces of foreign DNA, meaning that they will likely not come under existing regulations governing genetically modified organisms.