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• Syngenta Seedcare has received EPA approval for the nematicide Avicta for use on soybeans

• European Commission has announced new measures that would allow member states, or even regions within countries, to restrict the cultivation of GM crops

• Certis UK launches new metaldehyde formulation for slug control

• Monsanto has received EU authorisation for two of its corn technology combinations

• Monsanto is to introduce new Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean varieties with aphid tolerance in 2011

• Syngenta Seeds has unveiled its Agrisure Artesian technology, the brand name for its range of water optimised corn hybrids

• American Vanguard Corporation  has acquired the cotton defoliant product Def (tribufos) from Bayer CropScience

• Agrium Inc has acquired 24 retail farm centres in Argentina from DuPont Crop Protection

• Syngenta and Bayer CropScience have entered into a long-term business which grants Bayer a worldwide, non-exclusive license for the use of Vipcot insect control technology in cotton

• Bayer CropScience has been granted regulatory approval for its fungicide isotianil in Japan

• Valent has received EPA approval for aerial applications of the insecticide Belay (clothianidin) in soybeans

• Monsanto has recently completed its regulatory submission to the US Department of Agriculture for dicamba tolerant soybeans

• BASF and Monsanto are to expand their joint efforts to develop higher yielding and stress tolerant crops by including wheat

• Bayer CropScience is facilitating a new initiative, called Respect the Rotation which is intended to encourage farmers to adopt the key elements of Integrated Weed Management

• Engage Agro is to expand into the US

• Syngenta sales in the first six months of 2010 increased 1% to $6.74 billion, but were 3% lower at constant exchange rates

• Growers in Australia are being warned to manage weeds with a range of weed management tactics following confirmation of 10 new populations of glyphosate resistant annual ryegrass in Western Australia

• The UK Technology Strategy Board has awarded 32 innovative crop protection projects £13.5 million  set aside for collaborative R&D

• Monsanto has added an acetochlor premix formulation for pre-emergence and post-emergence use in corn to its herbicide portfolio

• Eden Research plc, a UK agrochemical development company, has signed an exclusive option agreement for its nematicide product and technology with Certis Europe

• Gowan Company has been granted the US crop protection marketing rights for Nippon Soda’s insecticide Confirm

• FMC has acquired the herbicide fluthiacet-methyl from the Japanese companies Kumiai and Ihara

• AgraQuest has received registration for its soil fungicide Serenade Soil  from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation

• Syngenta will assume responsibility for the supply and distribution of Dow groSciences crop protection products in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region

• The Sipcam-Oxon Group has acquired a minority stake in the Germany-based biorational crop protection company, Prophyta Biologischer Pflanzenschutz

• CropLife International calls for global action to reverse boom in counterfeit trafficking

• Makhteshim Agan Industries (MAI) is to acquire US-based Albaugh for more than $1 billion

• EU farm ministers have failed to agree to approve six genetically modified (GM) maize varieties for import for human and animal feed, despite a warning that inaction could lead to a shortage of animal feed 

• Arysta LifeScience and Cheminova have reached an agreement to cooperate in Spain

• The US EPA has taken the decision to phase out all uses of the insecticide endosulfan in the US

• Syngenta Seeds has received approval from the Japanese regulatory authorities for the Agrisure Viptera trait

• Swiss-based Andermatt Biocontrol AG , has founded a subsidiary company in South Africa

• Syngenta is to supply Rallis India with the fungicide azoxystrobin

• Gadot Chemical Tankers and Terminals Ltd,  is to acquire Israel-based Merhav Agro Ltd for approximately $28.4 million

• Monsanto has reported that the company’s results in the third quarter were affected by price decreases for Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides

•  Monsanto is repositioning its Roundup  business because of structural changes in the glyphosate industry

• Bayer launches new onion fungicide in the UK

• Syngenta Seeds is introducing a new variety of sugar beet, Sentinel, and claim it is resistant to Rhizomania and a cost-effective answer to the problem of Beet Cyst Nematode (BCN)

• Devgen has launched its nematicide Enclosure in the US for use in commercial peanut production

• Syngenta Crop Protection has received federal EPA registration and California Department of Pesticide Regulation approval for the fungicide Quadris Top to be used on tomatoes and potatoes in California

• Valent has announced plans to launch Fierce, a new residual herbicide for corn and soybeans, in 2011

• Syngenta has acquired the Maribo Seed sugar beet business from Nordic Sugar

• Crop productivity specialists Plant Impact has extended its partnership with Arysta LifeScience with a new distribution agreement covering Central America

• Bayer CropScience and Dow AgroSciences have entered into cross-licensing agreements regarding cotton technologies

• Origin Agritech Limited has acquired an 80% ownership stake in Shandong Kunfeng Biochemical Limited

• The UK Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD) has revoked the approval for sale, supply, use and advertisement of the fungicide Agrotech Chlorthalonil 500

• ECPA has called for a European partnership for speciality crops

• Bayer's potato haulm desiccant is registered in the US

• Gowan Company has formed a new US subsidiary Gowan USA to focus on the  agriculture and TO (turf and ornamental) crop protection product business

• Gowan Company has received federal Section 3 registration for Magus

• Bayer CropScience and the Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC), São Paulo, Brazil are to cooperate on the research and development of new GM sugar cane varieties

• Cheminova has acquired Isagro’s global dimethoate insecticide business

• BASF has received registration from the US EPA for Charter F2 fungicide seed treatment

• DuPont has divested its global non-mixture mancozeb business assets to United Phosphorus, Ltd (UPL)

• BASF has signed an agreement with Japanese company Meiji Seika Kaisha for the co-development of a new insecticide

• Nufarm has acquired the oilseed and confection sunflower interests of California-based Flower Genetics

 Headlines from April 2010

• Nippon Soda has appointed Certis Europe as its distributor for its range of tebufenozide products in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg

• An advanced range of packaging developed by Syngenta to help improve efficiency, safety and environmental protection received positive feedback from farmer users in the UK

• Gowan Company has received a federal section 3 registration of Scorpion 35SL insecticide for  insect control in cucurbits, fruiting vegetables, brassicas, potatoes, grapes and leafy vegetables

• BASF has filed lawsuits against Makhteshim Agan of North America (MANA) and its affiliate Control Solutions, and against Cheminova for infringement of patents relating to the manufacture and use of fipronil

• BASF Crop Protection has announced a new fungicide active ingredient called Xemium

• Monsanto has unveiled its product strategy to bring volume growth through upgrades on existing acres and by winning new customers

• Syngenta is investing some €50 million in expanding several Saltigo facilities in Leverkusen, Germany to enhance that company’s capacity for synthesising crop protection active ingredients

• Dow AgroSciences has secured an exclusive license from Semillas Papalotla for Brachiaria grass seed hybrids and cultivars

• William S Niebur is to lead DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred business in China

• Arysta LifeScience has been granted commercial registration in Turkey for Wapiti 98, a broad-spectrum soil fumigant

• New EU approvals for maize seed treatments mean that drilling can now only be done by machines that do not vent into the air

• A $15 million expansion of the manufacturing operations at Bayer CropScience, Muskegon Industrial Park, US was recently completed

• Syngenta has entered into a long-term multi-crop partnership with Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, to advance solutions for improved crop quality and yield

• Valent has received additional EPA registrations for its insecticide Belay (clothianidin) for use on a growing list of fruit, vegetable and nut crops

• Syngenta has received deregulation of MIR162, the Agrisure Viptera trait, from the US Department of Agriculture

• Nihon Nohyaku has set a target of 8-9 billion yen  in annual sales in three to four years for its novel insecticide Axel Flowable in overseas markets

• Two new strobilurin fungicides, developed and owned by Shenyang Research Institute of Chemical Industry (SRICI) have been granted provisional approval in China

•  Australia-based Ospray Pty Ltd, part of the Cheminova group, will be the exclusive distributor of Arysta LifeScience crop protection products in Australia and New Zealand

• A new Poncho/VOTiVO seed treatment from Bayer CropScience has received registration from the US EPA for use on corn

• GfK Kynetec  has acquired the non-crop business of the UK based Agricultural Information Services (AIS)

• Makhteshim Agan has reported that sales in 2009 dropped 12.7% compared to sales in 2008

• Chemtura has announced a new identity for its established crop protection business

• Monsanto has opened its new glyphosate production facility in Luling, US

• Novozymes Biologicals BioAg Group has launched Met52 Granular as a bioinsecticide for use in Canada

• Marrone Bio Innovations  has submitted two new agricultural biopesticides to the US EPA

• Oxford Plant Sciences (OPS) is merging with the French contract research organisation, Staphyt

• Syngenta has entered into a public-private partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to focus on the development of new technology for wheat

• A new fungicide, Bontima, based on Syngenta’s isopyrazam is being launched to UK barley growers this season

• BASF’s Crop Protection division has opened a new office in Kenya

• Bayer CropScience and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national research agency, are expanding their collaboration to assess the sustainability of new generation crops

• Embrapa, the agri-business and research arm of the Brazilian Government, has established its first UK base at Rothamsted Research

• Devgen and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have established a partnership to develop hybrid rice that withstands drought

• The biopesticide company Certis USA has reached a marketing agreement with PQ Corporation that allows it to reintroduce and distribute a preventative fungicide, Sil-Matrix

• Nippon Soda (Nisso) has acquired the tebufenozide insecticide business from Dow AgroScience

• Syngenta Crop Protection, Canada is to work with Innovotech on a new plant bacterial blight research product  

• The EPA has granted federal registration for Makhteshim’s Rimon (novaluron) to be used on additional crops

• DuPont plans to expand its seed facilities in central Iowa

• Bayer CropScience and Mendel Biotechnology have entered into a new three-year collaboration agreement

• Origin Agritech, a supplier of hybrid and genetically-modified crop seeds in China, announced it has developed a strategic pesticide business unit for premium branded chemical products

• CropWorld will be taking place in London in November 2010. The event formerly known as the BCPC Congress was previously held in Glasgow

• DuPont's Agriculture & Nutrition segment expects to grow sales by 10% in 2010

• Syngenta’s reported sales of $11 billion for 2009 were 5% lower than in 2008 owing to the strength of the dollar in the first half of the year

• BASF says it plans to introduce 28 new crop protection products in the US in the next four years

• Advanta US has acquired the business and assets of the Texas-based Crosbyton Seed Company 

• The European Commission has approved Amflora, BASF's genetically optimised starch potato, for commercial application in Europe

• 14 million farmers in 25 countries grew GM crops on 134 million hectares in 2009. This is a 7% increase over 2008, and includes the adoption of GM crops in one new country, Costa Rica

• Bayer CropScience’s new insecticide Movento, has been approved in the UK for use on both salad and brassica crops

• Monsanto has received approval from the US EPA for the sale of a new formulation of acetochlor

• The US EPA has granted registration for Isagro's Tenet fungicide, a biorational product to be marketed exclusively in the US by SipcamAdvan

• BASF’s Crop Protection division increased sales by 7% to €3.6 billion

• Bayer CropScience gained further market share in 2009, improving sales by 2% to €6.5 billion

• Dow Agrosciences expects more than $800 million of the company’s sales will come from new products by 2013

• Syngenta has signed a long-term collaboration agreement with the Agronomy Institute of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil  to share technical knowledge for sugar cane studies

• US-based Divergence  has received two Small Business Innovation Research  grants totaling $500,000 to support  innovative work on nematodes

• Marrone Bio Innovations has demonstrated  that mixtures of copper with the biofungicide Regalia are effective in controlling walnut blight

• Syngenta Seedcare has received US EPA registration for the use of Cruiser insecticide seed treatment on sugar beet

• Cibus Global has been granted a European patent for the production of crops resistant to glyphosate.

• Certis Italy has recently received registration for a biocide disinfectant, JetFive

• Valent USA is forming a new Biorational Business Unit

• Yissum Research Development Company  has completed two research and development agreements with Makhteshim Agan

• Syngenta's  Cruiser insecticide seed treatment has received US EPA registration for use on sugar beet

Headlines from January 2010

• BASF's fungicide Initium receives its first worldwide approval in Romania  on vines and vegetables
   

• AgraQuest introduces new soil fungicide for potatoes, tomatoes and cucurbits

• EU member states have voted in favour of having malathion back on the market in Europe

• Germany-based Neudorff  has assigned a number of biopesticide products to Certis USA

• Monsanto plans to become a part of the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) in Kannapolis, US

• DuPont has applied to regulatory authorities in the EU, as well as Canada and the US,  for registration of two new fungicides containing the active ingredient penthiopyrad

• Willowood Limited of Hong Kong is forming a wholly owned subsidiary in the US

• The Willowood Group has also acquired Shreeji Pesticides, an Indian contract manufacturer of agrochemicals

• Dow AgroSciences and KeyGene N.V. have entered into a trait development agreement

• Monsanto and Irish biotechnology company Stokes Bio have announced that they have entered into a licensing agreement and R&D collaboration

• Statistics regulation completes European Commission’s four-part ‘pesticides package’

• Under a new exclusive marketing arrangement, Interfarm UK will be marketing five crop protection products on behalf of Bayer CropScience

• Researchers at Leeds University, UK  have been trialling GM potatoes resistant to  nematodes  

• The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Monsanto's appeal of a ban on the sale of genetically modified alfalfa

• Mexico has given full regulatory authorisation for the importation of grain from three Monsanto Genuity corn traits

• Makhteshim Agan is creating an Americas Region in Miami, Florida

• Dow AgroSciences has sold its thifluzamide fungicide business to Nissan

• Bayer CropScience is adding the biofungicide Shemer to its portfolio of classic crop protection products

• Arysta LifeScience South Africa is acquiring selected assets of Tsunami Plant Protection and Tsunami Crop Care

• Market research organisation dmrkynetec, is to operate in the future as GfK Kynetec following the company’s acquisition by the GfK Group

• Following EPA approval, Valent plans to market Innovate, an insecticide/fungicide seed treatment for soybeans

• Summit Agro Europe has changed its name to Sumi Agro Europe

• Certis has been appointed by Nihon Nohyaku as the distributor for its potato desiccant, Quickdown, in the Netherlands

• BASF and Monsanto are to develop and commercialise new corn hybrids with better nutrition for animal feed

• Syngenta is to develop new technology for sugar cane

• Pioneer Hi-Bred is delaying the commercialisation of its corn hybrids and soybean varieties with the Optimum GAT trait

• AUSVEG  and Bayer CropScience are forming a partnership that will share research and information on the threats to vegetable crops

• Syngenta has received approval for the cultivation of its genetically modified corn trait Bt11xGA21 from the Ministry of Agriculture in Argentina

• Bayer CropScience has announced that it will launch a ew biocontrol seed treatment in corn, soybeans and cotton for the 2011 season

• Nufarm has rejected a revised takeover offer from China’s Sinochem and instead agreed to accept Sumitomo Chemical’s proposal to buy a 20% stake in the company

• Bayer Crop Sciences’ insecticide spirotetramat must be withdrawn in the US after a federal court i invalidated  EPA approval

• Monsanto has announced that the Roundup Ready soybean trait (RR1) will be available royalty-free at the end of the 2014 planting season 

• AgraQuest is to produce and package products for Bayer’s new Natria product line

• Brazil has approved the use of a new genetically modified soybean seed developed jointly by BASF and EMBRAPA

• Dow AgroSciences and Agrisoma Biosciences a have signed a research and commercial license option agreement that provides Dow  with access to Agrisoma's ETL technology

• Syngenta has opened a permanent site for Syngenta Biotechnology's research institute in China

• Gowan Company has launched a fungicide Moncoat MZ for use on potatoes in the US under a marketing agreement with Nichino America

• Syngenta has acquired two US-based lettuce seed companies

•  Monsanto is to acquire Pfizer's Chesterfield Village Research Centre in Montana, US for $435 million

• BASF Crop Protection is launching new, eco-friendly packaging for its crop protection products in Europe

• Syngenta Crop Protection and Arysta LifeScience have signed licensing agreements in Canada that allows each access to the other's herbicide chemistries. Syngenta will use the herbicide flucarbazone while Arysta will market clodinafop

• Makhteshim Agan has reported that its sales in the third quarter amounted to $435.9 million, compared with $640.1 million last year, a decrease of 31.9% 

• Bayer CropScience and GVK Biosciences Private Limited (GVK BIO), Hyderabad, India, have entered into a research cooperation

• Bayer CropScience and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, Philippines, have signed an agreement to establish a Scientific Know-how and Exchange Programme

• South Africa's Agricultural Research Council has appealed against the government's decision to reject a genetically modified potato it was hoping to release to farmers

• Syngenta and Makhteshim Agan have announced a long term agreement under which Syngenta will supply the Israeli company with its fungicide azoxystrobin

   

• DuPont Crop Protection has selected Engage Agro Corporation as its exclusive distributor of  vegetation management products in Canada

• Syngenta has received full approval for the cultivation of  two genetically modified corn traits in Brazil

• Kumiai Chemical Industry Co Ltd has taken a 5% share in Certis Europe, Mitsui & Co’s crop protection business in Europe

• Bayer CropScience’s new fungicide seed treatment, Proceed has been approved by the US EPA for the protection of cereal seed and seedlings

• Dow AgroSciences Canada is acquiring the assets of Hyland Seeds, a division of Thompsons Limited of Blenheim, Ontario

• DuPont Crop Protection has appointed Engage Agro Corporation as its exclusive distributor of its vegetation management products in Canada

• Cheminova has been unable to achieve expected sales and results in 2009. It has reported that revenue for the first three quarters fell by 7% to DKK 4,180 million compared to DKK 4,502 million in 2008

• Bayer CropScience and FuturaGene PLC, London, have entered into a license agreement for a drought tolerance technology

• Origin Agritech Limited,  China, has received final approval for the world’s first genetically modified phytase corn

• Syngenta ahas received cultivation approval for its corn trait GA21 in the Philippines

• BASF has launched Vivando, a new fungicide for the control of powdery mildew in squash and pumpkins in New Zealand

• Becker Underwood, the world’s largest producer of beneficial nematodes for crop protection, has increased its production capacity for 2010

• Monsanto has reported net sales of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009, a slight decrease over  2008 due to decreased sales of  Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides

• Syngenta Ventures has made an equity investment in Metabolon , a privately-held US biotechnology company focused on the use of metabolomics

• Bayer CropScience sales in the third quarter of 2009 were down by 8.7% to €1,140 million

• Bayer CropScience reports that it has sequenced the entire genome of rapeseed/canola (Brassica napus)

• Syngenta Crop Protection has introduced  Callisto Xtra, a new, post-emergence corn herbicide that will be marketed as a tank mix partner for glyphosate in glyphosate-tolerant corn

• The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and Hexima Limited are to form an alliance that will explore opportunities to research and develop improvements to cereal crops

• Makhteshim Agan North America (MANA) Crop Protection has acquired Bold Formulators, a US custom formulator, manufacturer and packager of agrochemical products

• DuPont has received registration approvals in Japan and Brazil for insect control products based on Rynaxypyr (chlorantraniliprole)

• Bayer CropScience has officially opened its new Cotton Research and Development Laboratory in Lubbock, Texas

• AgriSense-BCS  is relocating from the UK to Barcelona and together with sister company Suterra España Biocontrol, will operate as Suterra Europe 

• The UK's Technology Strategy Board  has announced the launch of a £13m R&D funding initiative to develop crop protection technologies that reduce the impact of the new EU regulations for pesticides

• FMC have reported that sales revenue in Agricultural Products was $268.3 million, an increase of 2% when compared to the same quarter in 2008

• Syngenta reports that sales in the third quarter of 2009 were at $2 biilion,12% lower than in 2008

• Becker Underwood,has introduced Vault HP, a new bio-based, multi-component, growth enhancer for soybeans

• Monsanto is opening its first research centre in China  

• CSIRO researchers in Australia have identified wheat and barley lines resistant to Crown Rot

• Monsanto has received approval from the Agriculture Ministry and Minister of Environment in Mexico for small scale field trials of its corn traits

• The US Justice Department is investigating whether Monsanto has violated antitrust rules in trying to expand its dominance of the market for genetically engineered crops

• Arysta LifeScience North America has announced the introduction of a new insect control technology

• Monsanto and the Huazhong Agricultural University in China have entered into a collaboration to further the development of novel traits

• The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a comprehensive new evaluation of the pesticide atrazine to determine its effects on humans

• The European Commission announced that it has approved a GM corn product for food, feed, import and processing jointly developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred and Dow AgroSciences

• State-owned Sinochem Corporation, China’s largest chemicals trader, has offered A$2.84 billion ($2.46 billion) for Nufarm

• UK scientists have been awarded £1 million by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council  in partnership with Syngenta to research the decline of honeybees

• Makhteshim Agan North America has launched its herbicide Pruvin (rimsulfuron)

• Sipcam-Oxon has established a new joint venture company Sipcam Agro China based in Shanghai and has opened a new representative office in Tokyo

• DuPont has added four new seed research centres in developing countries and has expanded operations at three existing facilities 

• Makhteshim-Agan (MAI) is investing $37 million in the San Diego-based agricultural biotechnology business Cibus Global

• Monsanto has outlined changes to its Roundup (glyphosate) and expects to cut the price by as much as 50%

• Bayer CropScience has successfully ended a patent infringement dispute in China with the two Chinese companies

• Nufarm group sales revenues for 2009 increased 7% to $2.68 billion but operating earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were down 44% to $151 million

• BASF has received US EPA registration for its a new herbicide active ingredient, Kixor (saflufenacil) for use on a wide range of crops

• BASF has agreed to supply Monsanto with a new cotton fungicide seed treatment  based on F500 (pyraclostrobin)

•  A federal court in California, US, has ruled against Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) sugar beets

• The currency-adjusted sales of Bayer CropScience grew 4% to €3,972 million in the first six months of 2009 despite unfavourable weather conditions in some of the major growing regions

• Beijing-based Origin Agritech Ltd  has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights  for a new seed gene for corn, soybean, rice, cotton and canola plants that is highly resistant to glyphosate.

• Syngenta and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are to collaborate in rice research

• Centro de Tecnologia Canavieir (CTC),  Brazil  and BASF have entered into a new cooperation agreement with the aim of bringing sugarcane growers higher-yielding and drought-tolerant varieties

• DuPont has received full Canadian regulatory approval for its herbicide tolerance trait, Optimum GAT, in corn and soybeans

• Nunhems, Bayer's vegetable seed business is to have exclusive use of BASF’s fungicide seed treatment on onion seeds in the US

• Syngenta unveils unique formulation robot at its Jealott’s Hill R&D site

• Bayer CropScience’s insecticidal active ingredient spirotetramat has received regulatory approval in Australia

• Dogal is to market Devguard, a nematicide from Devgen in Turkey

• Nufarm has strengthened its seed business by acquiring two US based sorghum companies

• Cheminova reports that it did not achieve expected sales and results in the first half of 2009 due to deteriorating market conditions for the herbicide glyphosate.

• Bayer CropScience is to purchase Athenix  an independent biotechnology company headquartered in Research Triangle Park in the US

• Bayer CropScience and the China National Rice Research Institute are to collaborate on rice research and development

• The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture has announced a two-year public-private partnership between Syngenta and  the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to  identify and map genetic markers for use in wheat resistance breeding against Ug99 stem rust

• Makhteshim Agan’s sales in the second quarter of 2009 decrease 17.9% compared to 2008. 

• Bayer CropScience and Canadian company Performance Plants  have entered into an  agreement for the development and commercialisation of drought-tolerant cotton

• Syngenta has acquired Monsanto’s global hybrid sunflower seeds activities for $160 million

• Monsanto has entered a non-exclusive research and commercial license agreement with France-based Cellectis

• Arysta to market Tyratech new technology in the US and Canada

• Bayer CropScience has signed a global cooperation agreement with the Greenery to further expand food chain partnership projects on a global scale

• Syngenta Seed Care has entered into a partnership with Incotec that will enhance quality control and assurance during the treatment of fruiting vegetable seed

• Dow AgroSciences has submitted the first product of a new family of herbicide tolerance traits to the US Department of Agriculture

• Chemtura has received US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration for a novel soybean seed-applied fungicide Rancona Summit

• Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered that the circadian rhythms or biological ‘clocks’ in some insects can make them far more susceptible to pesticides at some times of the day

• Bayer CropScience and Precision BioSciences have entered into a collaborative agreement to create site-specific genome modifications in plants

• Researchers at the German University of Neuenburg have used genetic technology to restore to maize a scent that defends it from pests

• An independent review commissioned by the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) shows that there are no important differences in the nutrition content, or any additional health benefits, of organic food when compared with conventionally produced food

• The 2008 French crop protection market increased by 2% in volume and by 14% in value to reach €2.079 billion

• AgraQuest has created a regional team to commercialise its products throughout Central and South America

• BASF’s herbicide Frequency  has received  approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for broad spectrum weed control on bareground

• Bayer CropScience has inaugurated a new innovation centre northeast of Saskatoon in Canada dedicated to the research, development and breeding of canola

• Bayer CropScience is expanding its global research and development activities in seeds and traits to include a focus on cereals and has recently formalised a long term alliance with CSIRO, Australia’s national research organisation

• Syngenta has signed a three year research agreement with the China Agricultural University (CAU)  in Beijing

•  

• SipcamAdvan has been appointed exclusive distributor for the biofungicide Actinovate in the US

• China's largest chemicals trader Sinochem has confirmed it is in discussions with Nufarm about a potential takeover

• Syngenta has set up a five year €1 million programme to provide essential habitat and food sources for pollinating insects across Europe

• Researchers at the University of Leicester, UK have paved the way for the first ever use in Europe of an insect to combat an invasive plant species

• Bayer will cease marketing the insecticide endosulfan in 2010 and will replace it with safer alternatives

• Monsanto is expanding its seeds and traits portfolio to include wheat and has acquired the assets of WestBred, LLC, a private wheat germplasm company based in Montana, US

• Dow AgroSciences and NemGenix, a biotechnology company based in Perth, Australia, have announced a newly established collaboration to produce nematode-resistant crops

• In the first half of 2009 Syngenta has achieved further sales growth. Sales at constant exchange rates (CER) increased by 2% driven by higher pricing . Crop Protection sales rose by 1% (CER) and Seeds sales by 7% (CER)

Headlines from June 2009

• The Bayer CropScience subsidiary Nunhems has opened a new experimental station in Cartagena in Spain

• DuPont has made two cotton acquisitions in India to enhance its product line

• Monsanto has reported net sales of $3.2 billion for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009, which are 11% lower than sales in the same period in fiscal year 2008

• Italian chemical company Endura has signed a licensing agreement with UK and Australian research institutes allowing it to commercialise new technology based on time delayed release of micro-encapsulated insecticides

• FMC has purchased the proprietary fungicide benalaxyl from Isagro S.p.A. 

• A new pre-emergence cereal herbicide Sakura discovered and researched by Japanese agrochemical company, Kumiai, is to be marketed in Australia by Bayer CropScience

• AgraQuest Inc., has received registration from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation for its new insecticide Requiem

• Plant Bioscience Limited of Norwich, UK and Becker Underwood  have signed an agreement granting Becker Underwood exclusive global marketing rights to a patented new seed treatment technology

• The Anticounterfeit and Health Unit of the Italian police has seized more than 120 tonnes of counterfeit pesticides

• Monsanto has received a favourable scientific opinion from experts at the European Food Safety Authority with regard to its Roundup Ready 2 (MON 810) corn product for cultivation. They have also reconfirmed the safety of the YieldGard insect-protected corn trait

   

• Monsanto and Protabit in the US have announced a two year collaboration to develop new tools for protein design and optimisation

• Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. (TKI) has acquired the linuron herbicide assets from DuPont Crop Protection

• Monsanto is planning to create a separate division for its Roundup (glyphosate) and other herbicides business

• Monsanto and Bayer CropScience have agreed to cross license their respective herbicide tolerance traits in canola on a non-exclusive basis for commercialisation within their own branded canola seed businesses

• Bayer CropScience and DuPont have entered into a series of long term business agreements related to key plant biotechnology traits and enabling technologies that will help increase agricultural productivity

• Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc has entered into a collaboration agreement with Evogene Ltd. The focus will be on identifying plant genes related to soybean nematode resistance

• Pasteuria Bioscience  has received US EPA registration for Pasteuria usgae for the control of nematodes

• Syngenta has acquired Georgia-based Circle One Global to add an innovative antitoxin crop protection technology Afla - Guard to the company's portfolio

• In Magdeburg, Germany, the regional court has sentenced six opponents of gene technology to pay compensation for the damage they have caused

• The Institute for Breeding Research on Horticultural and Fruit Crops, the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in  Germany has reported that 270 GM apple trees have been destroyed by intruders

• Dupont, Canada launch five new cereal herbicide  blends, that are available exclusively through DuPont PrecisionPac retailers

• The US Department of Agriculture  has granted approval for Bayer's GlyTol cotton technology

• Devgen’s new nematicide product has obtained regulatory approval in the US and will be promoted under the brand name Enclosure. First year sales will focus on usage in peanuts

• The US EPA is strengthening safety measures for soil fumigants

• BASF has filed a lawsuit  against DuPont for infringement of BASF's patented technology that confers tolerance to a key class of herbicides 

• Plant Impact has entered into an exclusive worldwide licence agreement with Arysta which includes the right to sublicence,  manufacture and sell its patented insecticide technology BugOil

• Bayer CropScience and the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC), Liverpool, UK have entered into a research agreement to discover new active ingredients for public health products that are effective against mosquitoes

• BASF has launched a new cereal seed treatment Rubin TT in Germany

• Syngenta Crop Protection has announced that its product Quilt Xcel has received a Section 3 registration in the US for use on corn

• DuPont has announced that it has applied for US EPA registration for four new weed control products based on aminocyclopyrachlor  for the land management market

• Bayer CropScience is to establish a plant biotechnology research centre in Morrisville, North Carolina

• Monsanto say that more than 16,000 farmers are planting Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans this season

• The US EPA has issued a final rule revoking carbofuran tolerances (residue limits in food for all commodities) effective 31 December 2009

• The Biosciences Research Centre, located in Melbourne, Australia has formed a global alliance with Dow AgroSciences.

• First quarter results announced by Makhteshim Agan were marked by declining profits, even though the company managed to maintain its sales

• Aceto Corporation, New York, US has reported that its crop protection sales increased 39.6% in the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 compared to 2008

• Texas AgriLife Research  has received a large private donation of cotton technology from Monsanto

• Pest Control India Private Limited (PCI)  is to launch Exosex YSB in India.

• Bayer CropScience and Janssen develop new post harvest fungicides

• Bayer launches website to support soybean aphid control

• The value of the conventional chemical crop protection market in 2008 increased by 21.2% in comparison with 2007 to reach $40,475 million, according to consultants Phillips McDougall

• Bayer CropScience  achieved some success in enforcing its patent rights in a Chinese court of law. The court ordered  Jiangsu Tian Rong Group Ltd to stop selling  mefenpyr because of an infringement of patent rights

• DuPont Crop Protection has recently launched three new products in India

• Dow AgroSciences increased sales by 10% to $1,446 due to increased volumes in the first quarter of 2009

• Bayer CropScience has reported a good first quarter to 2009. It increased sales by 7.2% to €2,120 due to higher selling prices coupled with an increase in volumes

• Cheminova’s parent company, Auriga, achieved growth of 3% in the first quarter 2009 at constant exchanges rates

• BASF's Agricultural Solutions business segment increased sales revenue by 21% to €1.145 billion compared to the same period in 2008

• FMC's revenue in Agricultural Products of $261.4 million was 6% lower than for the same quarter last year

Headlines from March 2009

• Monsanto and Hunan University, China have entered into a four-year research and licensing agreement focused on identifying novel plant genes

• Monsanto  saw record sales of $6.7 billion in the first six months of its 2009 fiscal year. The year-to-date sales were 16% higher than sales in the same period in the previous year.

• Nufarm has beaten market forecasts and achieved stronger than expected growth in the first half of its 2009 fiscal year

• Bayer CropScience has acquired assets and technology from AgroGreen one of the leading companies in the bionematicides business

• Syngenta Crop Protection has announced that the  US EPA has issued a Section 3 registration for the use of Flexstar GT herbicide in glyphosate-tolerant soybeans

• Bayer CropScience and the National Centre for Scientific Research - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, France, have renewed an agreement signed in 2005

• Makkhteshim Agan reports that sales in 2008 increased by 22.8% higher reaching a record $2.54 billion. Crop protection sales were 26% higher than in 2007

• Dow AgroSciences LLC and Schillinger Seed, Inc have entered into a licensing, research and development agreement for the commercialisation of GM soybeans

• Syngenta and Dow AgroSciences have announced an agreement to cross license their respective corn traits for commercialisation within their branded seed businesses

• DuPont and the Indonesian Centrer for Rice Research (ICRR) have announced an agreement that grants  Pioneer Hi-Bred access to test and commercialise ICRR rice hybrids in Asia

• DuPont and the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have entered into a multi-year, exclusive research collaboration to improve in-plant insect control

• BASF has entered into a license, supply and distribution agreement for AgraQuest's Serenade, a leading bio-fungicide product.

• Dow AgroSciences has received regulatory approval from the Brazilian National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) for its WideStrike Insect Protection technology in cotton.

• CropScience intends to consolidate its European plant biotechnology research activities at its Innovation Centre in Ghent, Belgium.

• International, a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd, an Indian biotechnology company has formed an alliance with DuPont Crop Protection

• Monsanto has completed its regulatory submissions in the US and Canada for the world's first biotech drought-tolerant corn product developed together with BASF

Headlines from February 2009

• UK scientists have been awarded £1.7 million to analyse the genomes of five varieties of wheat, in order to help farmers increase yield and disease resistance

• Cheminova is increasing its ownership stake in Stähler to 75%

• Syngenta sales (at constant exchange rates) increased by 21% in 2008. Volume growth of 15% was supplemented by a  6% contribution from price

• Bayer reports that its CropScience business achieved the best performance in the history of its crop protection business. Sales grew by 9.5% to a record €6.382 billion

• DuPont Crop Protection’s new insect control chemistry Rynaxypyr is now is available to Turkish farmers

• The BCPC Congress will be back in November 2009 at the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre in Glasgow

• The US EPA has registered Bayer’s fungicide Adament 50 WG for the control of powdery mildew, leaf spot and several other diseases on grapes and stone fruit

• FMC has acquired the CB Professional Products  range of insect control products from Waterbury Companies, Inc.

• Monsanto is to introduce a family of traits under the name Genuity in the US

• Kenya has become the fourth African country to allow the production and use of genetically modified crops

• Bayer CropScience and Nature Source Genetics, New York, US have entered into an exclusive five year collaboration involving the pre-breeding and enhancement of cotton germplasm

• Scientists  have identified a wheat gene sequence which provides protection against leaf rust, stripe rust and powdery mildew

• Indaziflam is one of ten new active ingredients that Bayer CropScience is planning to launch between 2008 and 2012. The company anticipates marketing the first herbicide products based on indaziflam in 2011 subject to regulatory approval
   
• Syngenta has agreed an eight year research collaboration with Anhui Rice Research Institute (ARRI) in China

• Dow AgroSciences has reported that its 2008 sales revenues rose 20% to $4.5 billion while operating profit increased by 36% to $761 million

• In 2008 BASF increased sales in its Agricultural Solutions segment by 8.7% to €3.409 billion

• Makhteshim Agan launches epoxiconazole in the UK

• Environment ministers from the EU member states have voted to reject a European Commission proposal that would have required Austria and Hungary to lift their bans on genetically modified (GM) corn seeds

• Nufarm has launched three new wild oat and broadleaf herbicide combinations, Signal, Signal D and Signal M, for use in spring wheat and durum crops in Canada

• The EPA has approved Syngenta’s fungicide Inspire XT for use on sugar beet in the US

• Dow AgroSciences and the China National Rice Research Institute in have entered into a research agreement to combine the strengths of Dow AgroSciences’ traits and technologies with CNRRI’s leading rice germplasm

• DuPont and the International Rice Research Institute, based in the Philippines, have entered into a collaboration to boost rice yields

Headlines from January 2009

• MEPs have voted in favour of the new EU pesticides package at a plenary session in Strasbourg. It is expected that the legislation will be implemented in the second half of 2010

• The Co-op, one of the UK’s leading supermarkets,  is prohibiting suppliers of its own-brand fresh produce from using neonicotinoid insecticides until they are shown to be safe to honeybees

• BASF’s fungicide, Headline (pyraclostrobin), is the first to have US EPA  approved plant health claims on its label

• DuPont and Athenix have entered into a research collaboration to improve insect control in corn and soybeans. 

• BASF and Embrapa (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária), Brazil’s public agricultural research corporation, have submitted a jointly developed herbicide-tolerant soybean to CTNBio, the Brazilian Biosafety Commission responsible for regulatory approval

• Arcadia Biosciences  has reached a research and commercial development agreement with Targeted Growth Inc (TGI) for the development of herbicide-tolerant wheat.

• Protéus, a biotechnology company based in Nimes, France, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Syngenta on the development of novel high performing enzymes for next generation biofuel production

• BASF and Monsanto have announced a new joint-licensing agreement to accelerate the development of the next generation of dicamba-based weed control chemistry products

• Tesco’s chief executive has admitted that UK supermarkets may have been too quick to jump on the non-GM bandwagon and has signalled that Tesco is willing to re-open the debate

• United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) has launched a new sugar beet herbicide in the UK. The product, Betasana Trio, contains three active ingredients and uses the company’s patented Structured Surfactant Formulation (SSF) technology

• A new initiative to help cereal farmers combat the effects of grain price volatility and high fertiliser costs in 2009 is being launched by Syngenta in the UK

• Monsanto has established a three-year collaboration agreement with GrassRoots Biotechnology Inc. based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, to source novel genetic elements, including promoters and genes,

• DuPont saw its total profits from all business segments drop from $3 billion to $2 billion for 2008. However, sales in the agriculture and nutrition segment for 2008 were $7.9 billion, up from $6.8 billion the previous year

• Exosect has announced that it has signed an international distribution agreement with Makhteshim Agan Industries (MAI).

• BASF and Cibus, a leading plant trait development technology company, have reached a significant research milestone for developing Clearfield Production System plants in winter and spring oilseed rape

• FMC has introduced a new herbicide, Spartan Charge (sulfentrazone + carfentrazone-ethyl), for sunflowers

Headlines from December 2008

• New Zealand's Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) has announced that it is banning the insecticide endosulfan immediately

• Dow AgroScience’s new cereal herbicide Broadway Star has been granted registration in the UK

• Makhteshim Agan Industries (MAI) has acquired a  stake in Rokita Agro, a Polish agrochemical affiliate of the German group PCC, and the business of Magan Yu, a Serbian agrochemical distributor
   
  Bayer CropScience plans to launch its LibertyLink herbicide-tolerance technology for soybeans in the US in 2009

• Plant Health Care (PHC), the UK natural plant products company has reached an agreement with Monsanto on the commercialisation of a seed treatment for row crops and vegetables

• Pioneer Hi-Bred has unveiled a new business strategy to bring its seed genetics to more acres around the world through a network of partnerships and new brands

• Sipcam Agro US, and its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Advan and Sostram Corporation, are relocating their US headquarters Research Triangle Park in North Carolina

• AgraQuest has received EPA registration for its new biological insecticide Requiem

• EPA approves Syngenta's new Agrisure corn trait

• Trevor Thorley has been named as CEO and executive vice president of AMVAC Chemical Corporation

• Chemtura has chosen two new distributors for its seed treatment products in Canada

• Increased demand for its products in Latin America has propelled Monsanto to record sales and net income results for the first quarter of its fiscal 2009

• Bayer CropScience has terminated an agreement to develop seed treatments based on Plant Health Care's Myconate technology

• Makhteshim Agan North America (MANA) has introduced in the US Pyrimax 3.2SL, a new cotton herbicide

• DuPont’s seed subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred and Dow AgroSciences have received regulatory approval  for cultivation of the Herculex I insect protection trait in Brazil

• French-based agricultural contract research organisation, Staphyt, and the Agrostat businesses in Germany and Poland are to merge their operations

• The French presidency of the EU and negotiators from member states and the European Parliament have reached a compromise on the controversial pesticides registration 'package'

• SynTech Research has established a new operating company in Brazil to carry out contract field trials, project management and registration

Headlines from November 2008

• Syngenta is to acquire SPS Argentina , a company that specialises in the development, production and marketing of soybean, corn and sunflower

• BASF is to acquire Sorex Holdings Ltd, a manufacturer of branded chemical and non-chemical products for professional pest management

• The biopesticide company Certis USA  has been granted the marketing and distribution rights to sell MeloCon bionematicide in the US

• Syngenta has launched a new herbicide for US soybeans

• The UK Pesticides Safety Directorate's (PSD) latest report on the European Commission’s proposals for a new Pesticide Authorisation Regulation confirms that up to 23% of crop protection products could now be removed from the market

• The UK government has been ordered to review its policies on the use of pesticides after a green campaigner won a landmark victory in the High Court

• A counterfeit shipment of the cereal herbicide iodosulfuron, intended for export to the Middle East from the port of Tianjin in China, has recently been stopped by the courts

• Makhteshim Agan has reported record third quarter sales and another increase in profitability

• Syngenta and Dow AgroSciences have announced a research and development agreement to evaluate Dow compounds for incorporation into Syngenta's seed treatment portfolio

• Bayer CropScience  has opened a  new rice development centre in Suphanburi, Thailand

• Bayer CropScience held its first international Sugar Beet Future Forum early in November in Berlin

• BASF has announced details of a new fungicide active ingredient called Initium

• Syngenta is to take over certain assets of AgroStar AD, a leading company in import and distribution of crop protection products and vegetable seeds in Bulgaria

• Syngenta UK plans to introduce a new fungicide, code name 520, in 2010 based on a new class of chemistry

• Dow has acquired a seed company based in US Eastern Cornbelt

Headlines from October 2008

• Syngenta has reported that sales in the third quarter of 2008 increased by 28% at constant exchange rates (CER)

• Bayer's crop science business saw its sales rise 8% to €1.2 billion in the third quarter from €1.1 billion the previous year

• Dow AgroSciences has announced that it has created 350 new positions globally in 2008

• DuPont sales grew by 22% to $1.3 billion in the third quarter due to herbicide pricing, strong demand for fungicides and insecticides in Brazil and increased seed share and plantings in Brazil

• According to India’s Business Standard newspaper United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) has been in talks with Makhteshim Agan Industries (MAI) to buy a 39% stake in the company for around $1.1 billion

• FMC reports that revenue in Agricultural Products of $263.8 million was 37% higher than for the third quarter in 2007

• Syngenta Crop Protection has announced that the US EPA has issued a Section 3 registration for the use of Endigo (lambda-cyhalothrin and thiamethoxam) insecticide on soybeans.

• The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has declared that France's ban on Monsanto’s genetically modified maize MON 810 is unjustified.

• Syngenta is developing a new technology to dramatically improve the cost efficiency of sugar cane planting in Brazil.

• Dow AgroSciences  is acquiring the assets of Südwestsaat GbR (SWS), a well-established German based hybrid maize company

• BASF has granted Nufarm an exclusive license to the trademark Weedmaster (dicamba + 2,4-D) in the US
  
   

• Indian agrochemical company Punjab Chemicals & Crop Protection Ltd (PCCPL) is looking to make acquisitions in the US and Europe to grow its overseas turnover to Rs 300 crore ($60 million).

• Dow AgoSciences has reported sales of $976 million, 24% higher than for the same period last year and setting a third quarter sales record for the company

• Monsanto is to acquire Aly Participacoes Ltda. and its two sugarcane breeding and technology companies, CanaVialis S.A. and Alellyx S.A.

• Chemtura’s crop protection revenues increased 24% or $20 million compared with the third quarter of 2007 driven by increased volumes in Europe and Latin America.

• Syngenta Professional Products has launched a new turf fungicide, Renown (chlorthalonil and azoxystrobin)

• BASF's agricultural solutions business saw an 11% increase in third quarter sales to €636 million ($840 million) from €574 million in 2007

• Syngenta has acquired two US companies to grow its global flower business

• Dow AgroSciences is challenging a ban on the use of 2,4-D in Canada under Chapter 11 of the free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico.

• International Finance Corporation (IFC) is to make up to $75 million investment in United Phosphorus Ltd

• BASF Plant Science and Calantia Biotech , a Spanish company based in Valencia that conducts research into crop productivity in the biofuel sector, have announced a global licensing agreement

• Bayer CropScience will invest  €3.4 billion will be invested into research and development between 2008 and 2012

• The Italian government has banned the neonicotinoid insecticides that have been blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees

• Tessenderlo Kerley  has acquired  the assets, marketing and distribution channels of Agrochem of Istanbul and Izmir, Turkey

• Dow AgroSciences is acquiring the majority assets of the seed business, Renze Hybrids, Iowa, US

• Syngenta Crop Protection has received US EPA registration for its insecticide Durivo for use in vegetable crops

• Nufarm has reported a 39% increase in revenue from $1.79 billion in fiscal year 2007 to $2.49 billion in  2008

• DuPont has opened a new $2.5 million corn research centre in Bangalore, India

• Syngenta has received the 2008 World Business and Development Award (WBDA) for the development and successful introduction of tropical sugar beet

• Syngenta extends its agreement with Metabolon for access to  biochemical profiling technology for use in agricultural applications

•  DuPont opens a new €1.5 to €2 million research facility in Hungary

• The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is setting up a new pesticide committee to strengthen its role in reviewing the safety of active substances

• Bayer Crop Science’s LibertyLink soybean, A 2704-12, has received final approval from the European Commission for importation into the EU for food and feed use

• Eight leading trade associations in the UK food chain have written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown requesting a meeting to discuss the European Commission proposals for pesticide authorisations

• Syngenta Crop Protection has received a “NAFTA label” for its new fungicide Revus (mandipropamid)  for vegetable crops across Canada

• Bayer CropScience is to expand its biosciences and plant biotechnology research facility in Hyderabad, India

• Monsanto expects its seeds and genomics segment to generate above $3.8 billion in gross profit for its 2008 fiscal year, up from an earlier forecast of $3.7 billion, representing a growth rate of more than 25%

• After trading as Agrisearch for more than 25 years the UK CRO is to become Eurofins Agroscience Services

• Monsanto has received regulatory approval in China for the importation of Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans

• Cheminova increases  its sales by 47% in the first half of 2008

• US EPA registers Bayer's insecticide Belt

• Valent Corporation, US has acquired certain assets of Green Light Company , a consumer lawn and garden business

• BASF have reported that business in the Agricultural Solutions segment has grown in the first half of 2008. Sales rose by 14% and by 21% if currency effects were disregarded

• Monsanto and Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator have announced that they have settled a two year dispute involving a Roundup Ready patent infringement

• Bayer CropScience has been granted its first regulatory approval for the new corn herbicide thiencarbazone-methyl in Romania

• The EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health has approved four BASF pesticides following positive assessments by the European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA)

• Monsanto and the China National Seed Group Corporation have entered into an agreement to expand their investments in the companies’ existing Chinese joint venture company

• DuPont has been awarded a 2008 R&D 100 Award for Rynaxypyr, its advanced insect control product

• Makhteshim Agan sales in the second quarter were 25.8% higher at a record $682.3 million, compared with $542.5 million in 2007

• Bayer CropScience has expanded its business substantially in the first half of 2008. Adjusted for exchange rate and portfolio effects, sales grew 19% in the first six months of the year to reach €3.78 billion

• Dow acquires two US seed businesses

• Monsanto is to brand its new seed performance technology Acceleron

• BASF Plant Science and VIB-UGent Department of Plant Systems Biology) have signed a major cooperation agreement for three years to improve yield and stress tolerance

• Monsanto is pursuing court action after all of its GM trials in France were destroyed by environmental activists

• The British Crop Production Council (BCPC) has shocked the industry by cancelling the 2008 Congress in Glasgow  and putting its commercial arm (BCPE Ltd) into receivership

• BASF Crop Protection plans to invest more than €150 million in additional capacity to meet the growing demand for key crop protection products. The two-year expansion project will increase capacity at production facilities in Germany, France, Brazil and the US

• The US EPA is taking action to stop the use of the insecticide carbofuran on all food crops, including those that are imported

• The USDA has deregulated MON 89034, the new above the ground insect protection technology from Monsanto which will be stacked with the company’s below ground and Roundup Ready technologies to be sold as YieldGard VT Triple PRO

• Bayer CropScience has launched a new herbicide Ignite (glufosinate ammonium) as a nonselective alternative to glyphosate

• A new co-formulated cereal seed treatment from Syngenta, Celest Extra, brings together the triazole fungicide difenoconazole with fludioxinil

• The European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) has reported that the Polish security service has recently tracked down a consignment of counterfeit pesticides

• Margarita, an international investment company based in Madeira has acquired 70% of the shares held by Sipcam in Sariaf Gowan in Italy

• Bayer CropScience’s herbicide active ingredient tembotrione has been approved for use in Brazil

• The new insecticide active ingredient spirotetramat from Bayer CropScience has been granted regulatory approval in the US and Canada

• Syngenta has reported that sales revenue for the first half of 2008 is up 28% to $7.3 billion, 20% at constant exchange rates (CER)

• DuPont has received US regulatory approval for its proprietary herbicide tolerance trait, the Optimum GAT trait in soybeans

• DuPont and the Australian agribusiness Hexima have agreed a development and commercialisation agreement for certain biotech fungal disease resistance technologies

• Scientists are arguing that field trials of GM crops in the UK need better protection to allow researchers to assess the benefits of GM technology

• Syngenta has announced a decision to increase investment in its UK manufacturing and R&D sites by more than £100 million ($192 million) 

• A number of leading US agricultural businesses have joined together to form the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy,  designed to promote  the understanding that agriculture can sustainably meet the growing global demand for food and renewable forms of energy through innovation 

• Bayer CropScience has launched its Qualidate fingerprint authentification technique based on approved food additives, developed to protect against counterfeit products

• Gowan Company is to acquire the global rights to Dow AgroSciences’ zoxamide fungicide business

• After several failed attempts to find an agreement on new pesticide legislation, EU agriculture ministers, with the support of the European Commission, finally reached political agreement on 23 June on a compromise text put forward by the Slovenian Presidency

• Police in Russia have uncovered a major pesticide counterfeiting facility following a raid on premises near to the city of Kursk

• Coronet, the fungicide seed treatment from BASF, recently received registration from the US EPA for use on brassica, bulb, cucurbit and legume vegetables and cotton

• DuPont has opened a new maize research centre in Los Mochis, Mexico

• BASF and Monsanto have signed an exclusive agreement for a new fungicide seed treatment for soybeans in the US. The new product contains BASF’s pyraclostobin

• Nufarm has acquired the global trademarks, registrations and assets of a number of DuPont’s cotton products

• BASF and  Nidera, an internal agribusiness company based in the Netherlands, have introduced CLHA-Plus, a new genetic trait for the Clearfield Production System for sunflowers

• Nufarm has negotiated separate agreements with a number of leading Chinese companies involved in the manufacture of glyphosate

• Bayer CropScience has opened a rice research laboratory in Singapore to support the development of new high yielding hybrid varieties

• Syngenta unveiled its new S-pac packaging design for liquid formulations at the recent Cereals 2008 event in the UK

• The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in Germany has now lifted the registration suspension it imposed in May for insecticide seed treatment products used in oilseed rape

• Certis Europe has reported year end results of €113 million, showing a 31% increase in turnover to March 2008

• Rotam North America has received EPA registration for its product Romestrol (metsulfuron-methyl) to be used in the non crop, industrial turf and forestry markets

• Monsanto has acquired Semillas Cristiani Burkard (SCB), a privately-held seed company headquartered in Guatemala

• Dow AgroSciences has received one of the US government’s top environmental honours, the 2008 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, for spinetoram, an innovative insect control technology

• SynTech Research has established a new operating company in Argentina to carry out contract field trials

• Syngenta and DuPont are to share the costs of preparing the regulatory studies for DuPont’s Cyazypyr, a new broad spectrum insecticide which will provide global registrations and commercialisation opportunities for both companies

• Cheminova is to acquire Bayer CropScience’s pesticide formulation and filling facility in Australia

Headlines from May 2008

• Bayer CropScience recommends its cereal fungicide Folicur (tebuconazole) against Ug99, an extremely aggressive variant of the black stem rust fungus in Kenya and Iran

• BASF and Academia Sinica, the leading research institute in Taiwan have entered a research cooperation agreement that will focus on rice and corn

• DuPont and Rotam  have entered into a patent non-assertion agreement with regard to nicosulfuron in the US

• The US EPA  has approved Bayer's herbicide Laudis (tembotrione) for use in all corn crops

• The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has suspended the registration of eight insecticidal seed treatment products used in oilseed rape and corn as a result of bee losses in the state of Baden Württemberg

• Bayer CropScience has received registration from the US EPA for the fungicide Proline (prothioconazole) to be used  on soybeans

• Rotam establishes an office in the UK to manage the UK and Northern European agrochemical business

• Egypt has approved the cultivation and commercialisation of a Bt maize variety

• Monsanto will market iprodione under the Bayer trademark Rovral R  to Western Canadian growers

• The French parliament has adopted a controversial bill on genetically modified (GM) crops

• DuPont receives US and Canadian approval for products containing Rynaxypyr

• Aceto Corporation  has sold its phorate product line to American Vanguard Chemical Corporation (AMVAC)

• Syngenta has reached an agreement with Monsanto and has settled all outstanding litigation relating to the two companies’ global corn and soybean businesses

Headlines from April 2008

• Monsanto is investing $6 million in a new research centre in Gothenburg, Nebraska that will focus on technologies, corn breeding and agronomic practices to address water management in crop production

• Cheminova increased it revenue by  33% to $295 million while the EBIT margin improved to 9% during the first quarter of 2008

• BASF is putting pressure on the European Commission to give approval to its GM potato, Amflora. The company says it has become increasingly irritated with the Commission and has taken advertising space in several German daily newspapers

• Monsanto and Mendel Biotechnology are to conduct joint research on perennial grass seed as a second generation biofuel

• Bayer's new sugar beet fungicide, Escolta,  has been approved in the UK . The coformulation containing cyproconazole and trifloxystrobin gives good control of powdery mildew, rust, Ramularia and Cercospora

• Syngenta sales grow  20% at constant exchange rates compared with the first quarter of 2007

• Monsanto has reported record net sales of $3.8 billion for the second quarter of fiscal year 2008,  45% higher than in the same period in  2007

• Syngenta is to build a new biotech research & technology centre in Beijing, China. Its focus will be on early-stage evaluation of GM and native traits for key crops such as corn and soybean

• Bayer CropScience has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese company Jiangsu Tian Rong  to enforce rights under its Chinese mefenpyr (herbicide safener) patent

• The international seed technology company, Incotec is to acquire a 49% stake in the Swedish company SeedGard

• Chemtura has expanded its miticide portfolio with the introduction of Temprano, an abamectin based acaricide/insecticide

• Greece has recently renewed its ban on genetically modified maize. Experts fear pollen from biotech crops, carried by bees, could adversely affect swarms

• Syngenta has expanded its research campus in Stein, Switzerland. The company has invested some CHF 85 million ($81 million). Biological and chemical research activities will now  be consolidated at one site

• Syngenta's  insecticide, Centric (thiamethoxam) has been approved in the UK for the control of all the common aphid pests of apples and pears

• Bayer CropScience and Monsanto have entered into an exclusive agreement on a fungicide seed treatment for corn

Headlines from March 2008

• Bayer's new fungicide, fluopicolide receives registrations in Japan and the US

• China is to launch a huge research programme on genetically modified (GM) crops by the end of the year

• Mexico is about to clear the way for the legal cultivation of transgenic crops, in spite of resistance from environmentalists and several small farmer associations

• American Vanguard has acquired Bayer CropScience’s US production facility in Marsing, Idaho

• Chemtura Corporation has been named by Taminco as its exclusive distributor for Thiram Granuflo in the US

• DuPont, through its Pioneer Hi-Bred business, is making genomic sequences of Colletotrichum graminicola  a major fungal pathogen of corn plants publicly available through GenBank

• Friedrich Berschauer, chairman of the board of management of Bayer CropScience, has been appointed chairman of CropLife International, Mr. Hugh Grant, chairman and CEO of Monsanto, has been appointed vice-chairman

• A study by the European Pesticides Action Network (PAN) reveals that wines on sale in the EU may contain residues of t pesticides potentially harmful to human health. Manufacturers argue that the quantities are so tiny that drinking wine poses no health risk

• Pioneer Hi-Bred has opened a new state-of-the-art canola production facility in Lethbridge, US to meet an increased demand for its canola hybrid

• Valent BioSciences  has entered into a five-year collaborative agreement with the Chengdu Institute of Biology in China to study the role of abscisic acid (s-ABA) in crop stress management and plant disease resistance

• Nufarm Ltd has acquired AH Marks Holdings Ltd, UK a supplier of phenoxy herbicides and  Etigra in the US

• Cheminova gained market share in 2007. Calculated in Danish kroner, revenue increased by just over 8%

• Cornell University has been awarded a $26.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch a broad-based global partnership to combat wheat stem rust

• Monsanto and Divergence have completed the most comprehensive sequence of the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) genome to date

• Monsanto is to invest up to $196 million over the next 18 months at its glyphosate manufacturing facility in Luling, Louisiana, US

• Nufarm has  an operating profit of $35.4 million for the first six months of its financial year This compares with $7.5 million, the previous year. Group sales were $990 million, up by 71% from $580 million

• Andy Lee is named CEO of Sipcam Agro USA and ADVAN

• The European Business Association in Ukraine and the ECPA have launched a major awareness-raising campaign in Ukraine aimed at fighting the growing number of fake and dangerous pesticides appearing on the market

• DuPont’s insectide Rynaxypyr has been launched in the Philippines as Prevathon

• DuPont and Arcadia Biosciences have entered a research and commercial agreement to improve nitrogen use efficiency in corn

• Monsanto says it has been forced to raise the price of its Roundup agricultural herbicides because of the current all-time high demand and a global supply of glyphosate that is unable to keep up

• Syngenta  will donate a portion of its Allelic Diversity collection to the Maize Functional Diversity Group, a consortium of leading researchers

• Bayer CropScience achieved sales in 2007 of €5,826 million compared to € 5,700 million in 2006 up by 5.6% after adjustments for currency and portfolio effects

• Monsanto is establishing a global seed treatment platform. The company has entered into agreements with Becker Underwood and Plant Health Care who will provide  novel components for proprietary seed treatments for corn, soybeans and cotton

• Cheminova has received US registration for the herbicides Accurate Extra (thifensulfuron + tribenuron + metsulfuron) and Harass (thifensulfuron)  for selective post emergence weed control in cereal crops

• BASF introduced its new development pipeline herbicide saflufenacil under the trade name Kixor at a Weed Science Society of America meeting

• Syngenta sales at constant exchange rates (CER) increased by 11% in 2007, with growth across all product lines and all regions

• Syngenta has received US EPA registration for the fungicide Revus (manipropamid) for use on vegetables and grapes

• Cheminova is to take on  full ownership of Pytech Chemicals GmbH

• BASF (Agricultural products and nutrition) sales increased by 1.9% in 2007. Sales in Europe were up by 4%

• Dow AgroSciences has detected traces of an unapproved biotech material in three lines of non-biotech corn seeds

• Pioneer Hi-Bred is to access Syngenta’s novel insect control corn event, MIR162

• United Phosphorus has acquired the Colombia-based, Evofarms Group. The business markets generic crop protection products and holds several product registrations

• Biotech crop area grew 12% or 12.3million hectares to reach 114.3 million hectares, the second highest area increase in the past five years, says the ISAAA

Headlines from January 2008

• Syngenta and AgroFresh are to enter an exclusive global strategic alliance to develop and commercialise Invinsa, a unique product for crop stress protection in field crops

• Syngenta to access novel genes from Athenix

• Hodogaya Chemical and United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) have agreed to establish a  joint venture to market agrochemicals in Japan, with a focus on the non-crop sector

• BASF is to give limited access to its triticonazole fungicide to Bayer Environmental Science  in the US and Canada

• DuPont introduces two new herbicides Resolve Q (rimsulfuron + thifensulfuron methyl) and Require Q (rimsulfuron + dicamba) for glyphosate tolerant corn

• Certis Spain has added two specialist products to its portfolio the fungicide Cercobin and the insecticide Trebon

• Sinochem, China has acquired butachlor and alachlor from Monsanto for use in certain Asian countries and India

• President Nicolas Sarkozy defends the ban on  Monsanto's GM 810 maize in France

• Valent sells its Orthene insecticide product line to AMVAC

• Valent and its parent company, Sumitomo Chemical, have filed complaints against Syngenta and a number of its subsidiaries seeking relief for infringement of Sumitomo Chemical's patent on the insecticide clothianidin

• Dow Agrosciences reported record fourth quarter sales of $864 million, 6% higher than for the same period in 2006

• BASF and the National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS) in China have entered a cooperation and licensing agreement in biotechnology

• Bayer and partners to evaluate Jatropha based biofuel

• The US EPA has approved Syngenta’s insecticide Endigo (lambda-cyhalothrin and thiamethoxam) for use in potatoes

• France is to ban the sale of more than 1,500 pesticides starting on 1 February. The country aims to gradually phase out the use of 53 active substances and licences for 30 will be removed this year

• DuPont has received US EPA approval from  for Agility SG herbicide for wheat. Agility contains four active ingredients and two modes of action in a single formulation

• American Vanguard Corporation has acquired the pentachloronitrobenzene fungicide product line from  Chemtura including the Turfcide and Terraclor brands

• Cheminova and the Stähler Group are to form a partnership with Cheminova acquiring 50% of the Stähler business

•  Bayer CropScience presents details of  a new herbicidal mixture for preemergence weed control in corn based on thiencarbazone-methyl, a new sulfonyl-amino-carbonyl-triazolinone (SACT), and isoxaflutole combined a  new safener cyprosulfamiden.

• The Chinese-led consortium comprising China National Chemical Corporation, Blackstone Group and Fox Paine Management  advised Nufarm that it was unable to formalise its bid prior the expiry of the period of exclusivity  and  discussions between Nufarm and the consortium have ceased

• Volcano AgroScience, an affiliate of Arysta LifeScience Corporation, is to form a partnership with Nexus, one of the leading fruit, vine and cereal crop protection distributors in the Cape region of South Africa

• The US EPA has approved Bayer CropScience’s postemergence herbicide Laudis (tembotrione) for use in all corn crops

• Bayer CropScience is to partner with Soygenetics and the Stine Seed Company to bring LibertyLink soybean varieties to market by 2009

• Rotam  has received US registration for its post emergence broad leaf weed herbicide Volta (thifensulfuron methyl)

• DuPont  has received  US EPA approval for two pre-emergence herbicides for soybeans - Enlite and Envive based on  flumioxazin and the sulfonylurea herbicides chlorimuron ethyl and thifensulfuron methyl

• Bayer CropScience and Euralis Semences will cooperate in the development of new winter oilseed rape hybrids for European farmers

• The Spanish Environmental Police (Seprona) detain  eleven suspects and  seize 2,200kg of illegal pesticides in Almería

• Tessenderlo Kerley has  acquired the terbacil crop protection assets from DuPont Crop Protection. Terbacil is marketed globally as the herbicide Sinbar

• Agrium, North America's third largest fertiliser producer, has agreed to buy UAP Holding for $2.16 billion to double its US retail outlets.  The purchase also includes Loveland crop protection products and UAP's Dyna-Gro seeds

Headlines from November 2007

• Bayer CropScience is investing EUR 60 million in a  new plant , near Cologne, Germany to be built for the production of MPE (methane phosphonous acid n-butyl ester). MPE is an intermediate in the production of the herbicide glufosinate-ammonium

• Makhteshim Agan' sales for the third quarter of 2007, $496.2 million, were 21.7% higher than in 2006. First nine months sales were 18.1% higher

• Bayer CropScience sales rose by 10.3%  to  EUR 1,157 million in the third quarter of 2007

• The US branch of the Belgium-based Tessenderlo Group has purchased the Surround crop protection business from BASF

• A consortium comprising the China National Chemical Corporation, ChemChina, the Blackstone Group and Fox Paine Management makes an offer to acquire 100% of Nufarm shares

• Bayer CropScience, Mertec and MS Technologies have entered into a long term collaboration agreement to jointly develop and commercialise several innovative trait technology products in soybeans

• The UK Government's chief scientific adviser wants to see Britain "back at the forefront" of the positive use of GM technology

• EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has confirmed his refusal to authorise the cultivation of two varieties of genetically modified corn in the EU, because of risks to the environment

• Bayer CropScience has received its first regulatory approval for the new insecticidal active ingredient spirotetramat in Tunisia

• BASF's Agricultural Products division opens new laboratory for consumer and environmental safety in Brazil

• Dow AgroSciences receives its first global registration for the cereal herbicide Admitt (pyroxsulam) in Chile

Headlines from October 2007

• Agrochemicals firm Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection has acquired a 30% stake in US-based Source Dynamic

• Following the European Community Court of First Instance (CFI) decision  to annul the EU registration of the herbicide paraquat, Syngenta  has announced that it will re-apply for a new EU registration

• Syngenta's third quarter sales increased by 21% to $1.7 billion and  at constant exchange rates (CER) sales were 17% higher. For the first nine months sales rose 9% (CER) to $7.4 billion

• The US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Investigative and Enforcement Services fails to find "the exact mechanism for introduction" of Bayer CropSciences' LL traits into the commercial rice supply

• Monsanto achieved record sales of $8.6 billion in the company's fiscal year 2007. The year-to-date sales were 17% higher than in year 2006

• BASF Plant Science and Crop Functional Genomics Center (CFGC), the leading Korean consortium for crop research have signed a cooperation and licensing agreement

• President Nicolas Sarkozy has suspended the commercial cultivation of GM crops in France

• Arysta LifeScience has received US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commercial approval for the soil fumigant Midas (iodomethane)

• European Parliament votes against an EU-wide use reduction target for pesticides

• Arysta Life Sciences changes hands for $2.2 billion as Olympus Capital Holdings Asia and co-investors sell to Industrial Equity Investments Limited (IEIL), an international investment company located in Ireland

• The Brazilian agrochemical market is expected to rise  to R$5,000 million for 2007. Sales for the first eight months of this year increased  by 45% against  2006 to R$4,711.5
   

• The Agricultural Products division of BASF has announced that it will step up its worldwide fight against illegal pesticides

• Devgen is to set up a subsidiary in the US to develop its crop protection products

• Syngenta has expanded its AgriEdge Corn Programme for 2008 to include applications of the fungicide Quilt and the insecticide Warrior

Headlines from September 2007

• Dmrkynetec, a leading global supplier of agricultural market research has opened a  new office in Poznań, Poland

• DuPont has signed a supply agreement with Prochem Agritech in the Philippines. Under the agreement, Prochem will distribute the insecticide indoxacarb

• Volcano Agroscience a joint venture between Arysta LifeScience  and Strand Agroscience Investment Holdings have opened a new liquid formulation plant in South Africa

• Arysta LifeScience has acquired Grupo Bioquimico Mexicano the leading Mexican manufacturer and marketer of inputs for the fruit and vegetable market

• The Stähler group has purchased the global development and marketing rights for the herbicide active ingredient beflubutamide from the Japanese company, Ube Industries

• Monsanto has acquired Agroeste Sementes, a leading Brazilian corn seed company, for more than $100 million

• BASF register Regent (fipronil) for wireworm control in potatoes in the US

• Bayer to expand sales in its BioScience business from the 2006 level of €342 million to around €1 billion over the next ten years

• Six contenders are in the race to acquire Japanese company Arysta LifeScience. The acquisition is expected to cost nearly $2 billion

•  Bayer CropScience sales in the first six months of 2007 were on the same level as last year at €3.35 billion. Adjusted for currency and portfolio effects, this corresponds to an increase of 4% 

Headlines from August 2007

• Dow AgroSciences has achieved its first global registration of spinetoram, a new spinosyn insecticide compound.  The product will be sold globally under the brand name Delegate WG in the pome fruit market segment in New Zealand

• Punjab Chemicals & Crop Protection is acquiring a Netherland-based agrochemical company Pegevo Beheer for €40 million

• Bayer CropScience has opened an agricultural technology centre, Campo de Innovación Tecnológica (CIT) in Argentina

• Monsanto  has received approval in Argentina  for the company's stacked corn trait product containing the insect protection trait YieldGard Corn Borer with Roundup Ready Corn 2 technology

• Bayer CropScience has received the first regulatory approval for its new cereal herbicidal active ingredient pyrasulfotole from the US EPA

• Sales by Isagro, the Italian agrochemical company, rose 26.8% in the first half of 2007 to €100.95 million

• Bayer CropScience has been granted regulatory approval for its new insecticide active ingredient flubendiamide in India. The company plans to launch the new insecticide under the brand name Fame in 2007

• DuPont and Makhteshim Agan have reached an agreement whereby Mahkteshim will acquire Cotoran (fluometron) a herbicide used in cotton in the US

• Syngenta has obtained full regulatory approval in Japan for Agrisure RW, its corn rootworm insect control corn seed

• Meghmani Organics Ltd obtains registrations for its agrochemical products in both Brazil and Pakistan

• Makhteshim Agan reports record revenue and profit for the second quarter of 2007

• Syngenta has introduced sugar beet in India for cultivation in tropical climatic conditions

• The first all-African GM corn with resistance to the  maize streak virus (MSV), has been developed by scientists from the University of Cape Town and Pannar Pty Ltd, a South African seed company

Headlines from July 2007

• Dow AgroSciences is to expand its Brazilian corn seeds business with the acquisition of Agromen Tecnologia Ltda

• Arysta LifeScience and Valent  have reached a supply and marketing agreement in the US for the insecticide active ingredient clothianidin. Valent will now have rights to enter the crop, ornamental and professional turf markets

• Nunhems, the Bayer CropScience vegetable seed business, has acquired  the assets of the South Korean vegetable seed company SeedEx

• Syngenta has acquired an Israeli vegetable seed company Zeraim Gedera for $95 million

• The European Court of the First Instance has annulled the inclusion of the non-selective herbicide, paraquat, in Annex I of the EU agrochemical registration Directive (91/414)

• Syngenta reports market improvements in 2007. Sales for the fast half of the year at constant exchange rates were up 6% with growth of 7% in crop protection and 4% in seeds. EBITDA was 10% higher than for the same period in 2006

• United Phosphorus acquires the Argentina- based crop protection company Icona for $10 million

• BASF and Cibus, a US plant breeding technology company are to collaborate to develop and commercialise non-GM herbicide tolerance in oilseed rape

• Sumitomo Chemical has acquired an 80% shareholding in the UK agrochemical distributor Interfarm

• The US EPA has approved the registration of Dow’s insecticide Cobalt for the broad-spectrum control of insects in row and selected speciality crops

• Two new studies published by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) demonstrate the benefits of Bt cotton farming in India

• Interfarm is to launch Sumitomo's herbicide flumioxazin in the UK

• Bayer CropScience has successfully enforced the patent on imidacloprid against Ki-Hara Chemicals

• DuPont has sold its fenbutatin-oxide miticide and triphenyltin hydroxide contact fungicide assets to United Phosphorus Limited

• Syngenta has entered a five-year research collaboration with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) in Beijing, China

• CHS and Land O’Lakes, both located in Minnesota, US, are repositioning Agriliance the North American agronomy joint venture that they set up in 2000

• FMC Corporation will phase out its agricultural chemicals operations at its Baltimore facility in the US by March 2008. All the products currently produced there will be sourced from FMC's manufacturing alliance partners

• Athenix Corporation  and Monsanto  today announced they have entered into a three-year research collaboration for insect control

• DuPont has opened a new seed research centre in Porto Nacional, Brazil that  will help the company to accelerate its global research efforts to bring improved genetics and traits to the market faster

• The value of the French agrochemical market decreased in 2006 to €1,721 million, down 8% compared to 2005 but 20% down in comparison with 1999

• Syngenta’s herbicide, Prefix (S-metolachlor and fomesafen) is now registered by the US EPA as a premix formulation.

• Monsanto has reported a 71% increase in net income for the third quarter compared to the previous year. Net sales for the quarter grew 23%

• DuPont Crop Protection is to give Marrone Organic Innovations (MOI) exclusive access to its natural product discoveries for development as biopesticide products

• Bayer CropScience has completed the acquisition of Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Company from Monsanto Company after US authorities approved the transaction

• Evogene Ltd and Bayer CropScience are to collaborate to increase the productivity and yield of  Bayer 's core crops with regard to stress conditions such as drought

• Bayer CropScience and Monsanto  have entered into a series of long-term business and licensing agreements related to key enabling agricultural technologies

Headlines from May 2007

• The UK's Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD) has decided that additional resistance management advice should be added to the labels of all foliar applied DMI fungicides with recommendations for the control of Septoria tritici

• The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted experimental use permits (EUP) for DuPont’s Rynaxypyr based insecticides Altacor and Coragen for use on 10 fruit and vegetable crops in 16 US states

• Dow AgroSciences has received EPA registration for SureStart (acetochlor + flumetsulam + clopyralid), a new soil-applied herbicide specifically designed for use in Roundup Ready corn

• Pioneer Hi-Bred International and DuPont Crop Protection have introduced a new, broad-spectrum weed control option for sunflower growers, Pioneer brand sunflower hybrids with the DuPont ExpressSun trait

• Syngenta has agreed to take a 49% minority stake in Sanbei Seed Co Ltd, a leading Chinese corn seed company headquartered in Longhua, Hebei Province

• Representatives of Europe's leading crop protection companies and the Russian government have launched a campaign to counter the growing challenge of counterfeit pesticides and illegal trade in pesticides

• After two difficult quarters, Makhteshim Agan Industries has reported record sales during the first quarter of 2007, $559.3 million compared to $493.9 million in 2006, an increase of 13.3% 

• Monsanto moved quickly to complete the $1.5 billion acquisition of Delta and Pine Land (DPL) following the US Justice Department’s recent decision to give the deal the green light

• Bayer CropScience’s will acquire the Stoneville Pedigree Seed Company from Monsanto for $310 million. The acquisition is still subject to the approval of the US competition authorities

• Monsanto will sell its NexGen cotton seed brand and related business assets to Americot for $6.8 million

• Dow AgroSciences says it is committed to supporting and investing in the future of 1,3-D in the UK, EU and globally despite the product failing to achieve EU Annex I inclusion 

• Researchers at the University of Nebraska have successfully modified crops to resist the broadleaf herbicide dicamba

• Cheminova and Eden Research, a UK agrochemical development company, have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for Europe, CIS and the Americas for Eden’s terpene-based botrytis products  

• Cheminova has acquired a majority shareholding in the Hungarian company  Kerolagro, an independent distributor of plant protection and plant nutrition products for both crop and non-crop uses.

• Syngenta Crop Protection has launched Halex GT, a new corn herbicide based on mesotrione, specifically designed to improve glyphosate-tolerant (GT) corn production in the US

• DuPont plan to add more than 400 positions, mainly in research and development, in its seed subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Pioneer will also be expanding R&D efforts at 67 of its 92 research centres worldwide

• Bayer CropScience has launched two products in the US based on the active ingredient prothioconazole.  Provost (prothioconazole + tebuconazole)  controls a range of foliar and soilborne diseases that attack peanut plants. Proline (prothioconazole) is mainly for the cereal grains market

• Isagro has received permanent registration (Section 3) from the US EPA for tetraconazole and orthosulfamuron

• Gowan Company has acquired the marketing rights in Canada to the active ingredient pyridaben and is marketing it under the NeXter brand name

• After a very significant decrease in the market in 2005 (down 14.8%) sales of agrochemicals in Spain  in 2006   reached €555.70 million, up 2.8% on the previous year

• The US EPA has approved a request for a specific Section 18 exemption for six fungicides containing the active ingredient tebuconazole to control scab (Fusarium head blight) in wheat and barley.

• The EPA has granted Bayer CropScience a Section 3 approval for Stratego, a premix of trifloxystrobin and propiconazole for use on soybeans

Headlines from March 2007

• FMC Corporation  has secured from Sankyo Agro exclusive access to simeconazole, a proprietary, triazole fungicide

• Bayer CropScience's sales ended the year at €5,700 million, down 3.3% compared to the previous year.  Crop Protection  sales decreased by 4.7% to € 4,644 million
   

• Bayer CropScience plans to grow its business in China from the current level of €65 million (2006) to over €100 million in the medium term. It will also expand its production site for crop protection products in Hangzhou by investing a further €25 million in 2007 and 2008

• BASF’s insecticide fipronil has been authorised for Annex I listing by the EU Commission

• Syngenta has acquired the Fischer group for around $67 million cash. Fischer is a private company specialising in the breeding and marketing of flower crops

• Bayer CropScience has recently received EPA registration for its fungicide Provost (prothioconazole + tebuconazole) for use on peanuts for the control of the major foliar and soilborne diseases

• BASF and Monsanto are to work together in the plant biotechnology sector. Both companies have agreed to a long-term joint R&D and commercialisation programme that focuses on high yielding crops and crops that are more tolerant to adverse environmental conditions

• The peak sales potential of BASF's development pipeline has increased to €800 million. BASF is currently working on developing seven new active ingredients and on one new herbicide tolerance project

• Makhteshim Agan Industries posted a      net loss of $38.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. The company ended 2006 with sales of around $1.8 billion, up just 2% on 2005

• FMC has received approval for its insecticide Beleaf (flonicamide) for use on potatoes to control a variety of insect pests including aphids, tarnished plant bugs, Western plant bugs and leafhoppers.

• Amvac have reported net sales of $193.8, up 2% from $189.8 in 2005

• The South African government has rejected Syngenta’s application to grow genetically modified (GM) maize in South Africa for the biofuel industry

Headlines from February 2007

• Monsanto is to provide academic researchers and public institutions with free access to its new cyst nematode marker technology

• Sales of agricultural products by BASF drop 6.6% in 2006 to €3,079 million. R&D expenses increased by 10% to €334 million.

• Syngenta increased its net profit by 12% last year to a record $872 million while sales dipped by 1%  to $8.05 billion

• At a public hearing in the European Parliament  the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) has called on stakeholders to support a new plant protection marketing regulation that stimulates innovation in new products
  
   

• ENDURE (European Network for the Durable Exploitation of Crop Protection Strategies) launched by INRA, France receives €11.2 million European funding to develop environmentally friendly crop protection strategies across Europe

• Environment ministers from the EU's 27 national governments have blocked a proposal by the European Commission to force Hungary to lift its ban on Monsanto's MON810 corn

• Nunhems BV, Bayer CropScience’s vegetable seed business, has signed an agreement with Unilever to co-develop new tomato varieties

• Belgian biotech group Devgen has entered into a new five-year research and technology exchange agreement with Monsanto

Headlines from January 2007

• Isagro has set up a  distribution and marketing agreement with RiceCo in the US for its new rice herbicide Strada (orthosulfamuron)

• Bayer CropScience has started launching its potato blight fungicide Infinito (fluopicolide) into  additional European markets. The product has now gained regulatory approval in Poland and Germany, and can also be used in Austria

• Dupont has finalised supply agreements with Mitsui Chemicals for the fungicide penthiopyrad

• Syngenta has received US EPA approval for its insect trait stack (corn rootworm plus European corn borer). This approval enables Syngenta to launch a triple stacked corn that includes glyphosate tolerance.

• Syngenta and Diversa Corporation have agreed  a new 10-year research and development partnership focused on the discovery and development of a range of novel enzymes for use in the production of biofuel

• Chemtura has signed a global agreement to develop and commercialise Kureha's ipconazole for seed treatment uses

• Syngenta is cutting the prices of its agrochemical products by 20 % for Swiss farmers following criticism from the authorities regarding excessive high pricing

• Bayer CropScience  and Plant Health Care Inc are to develop new seed treatment solutions based on Plant Health Care´s Myconate technology used in combination with Bayer's seed treatment products

• AMVAC has entered into an agreement with DuPont  Crop Protection so that AMVAC’s newly launched corn herbicide Impact (topamezone) can be used as part of Pioneer's TruChoice Opportunity Programme

• Sci-Protek will distribute Exosect's new Exosex Mating Disruption Products to US growers

• Bayer CropScience has received its first  approval for the new corn herbicide Laudis (tembotrione) in Austria

• The European CRO, Agrisearch, acquired by Eurofins in 2006, has formed a North American subsidiary Eurofins/ Agrisearch Americas Inc to service the crop protection industry in the US

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