DuPont received three prestigious Agrow Awards in recognition of its innovative and industry-leading agricultural product pipeline and technologies.  The awards were presented to DuPont’s Crop Protection and Pioneer Hi-Bred businesses this week at the inaugural 2007 Agrow Awards ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland.

“We are thrilled with the recognition we’ve received from the Agrow Awards and our peers in the industry,” said Erik Fyrwald, group vice president, DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition.  “New products and technologies such as the Optimum™ GAT™ trait, DuPont ™ Rynaxypyr™, and a broad array of others in our crop protection and biotech pipelines will deliver powerful new tools and choices to farmers around the globe.”

DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition was recognized for the following products and technologies: 

Best R&D Pipeline.  DuPont received the 2007 Agrow Award for “Best R&D Pipeline” in recognition of the broad array of new active ingredients and biotech traits in development across the DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition platform.  The depth and breath of the DuPont pipeline across new chemistries and genetic traits make it unique to the industry.

Some of the exciting products in discovery and development include new DuPont herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, as well as new Pioneer seed and trait advances in herbicide tolerance, disease resistance, insect control, yield and agronomic improvements, improved feed characteristics, increased ethanol production, healthier oil production and improved crop processing characteristics. 

Best Novel Agricultural Biotechnology – Optimum™ GAT™ Trait.  DuPont used proprietary gene shuffling technology to develop the Optimum™ GAT™ trait that provides tolerance to glyphosate and ALS herbicides, giving growers a new and better choice that maximizes yield potential, improves crop safety and expands weed control options.  This next-generation herbicide tolerant trait allows growers to incorporate complementary ALS herbicides offered by DuPont Crop Protection into a glyphosate program, giving them longer lasting, broader spectrum weed control under more conditions than ever before.

Most Innovative Chemistry – DuPont™ Rynaxypyr™.  DuPont Crop Protection was recognized for its novel insecticide, DuPont™ Rynaxypyr™.  This unique molecule is extremely effective at providing long-lasting control of a broad spectrum of chewing insects and several other important insect species at low application rates in a wide variety of crops.  It also exhibits an excellent environmental profile.  Rynaxypyr™ will be launched in selected markets later this year under the DuPont™ Altacor™, Coragen™ and Prevathon™ brand names.