Washington - BASF SE, the world's largest chemical maker, said drought-tolerant corn seeds it is developing with Monsanto Co. will reach farmers in 2012 for planting the next year.

The seeds, which began field trials this year, will limit yield reduction that can be as much as 30 percent in the U.S. and Europe, Hans Kast, president of plant science, said in a presentation Tuesday. The companies are developing genetic improvements that will have a market value of more than $2 billion by 2020, excluding underlying seed value, he said.

The German chemical maker last year partnered with Creve Coeur-based Monsanto, the world's largest seed producer, to develop higher-yielding, stress-tolerant corn, soybeans, canola and cotton. The market for genetically modified crops may jump tenfold, to $50 billion by 2025, as a growing global population consumes higher-protein foods that require more grains from limited land, Kast said.

Drought-tolerance is "an issue for the farmer," Kast said. "It is only biotechnology that can deliver a quick solution."

BASF currently generates almost no sales or profit from genetically modified seeds.

The company will pursue a strategy of licensing its plant biotechnology to seed producers such as Monsanto, and it has no ambitions to acquire such companies, Stefan Marcinowski, BASF director of agriculture, said Tuesday in an interview.