A long-term agreement to accelerate the development and commercialisation of novel seed treatments has been signed by Sumitomo Chemical of Japan and DuPont Crop Protection, which is part of the newly merged DowDuPont’s agriculture division. The collaboration aims to improve early plant growth and yields around the world, and it will begin in the 2018 growing season.

This arrangement will allow Sumitomo’s pipeline of conventional chemical and biological products to be combined with DuPont’s advanced seed technology and commercialisation capability. The two companies suggest that they can evaluate these technologies together, at much earlier stages, to find complementary combinations of insecticides, fungicides or nematocides that are applied directly to seed before planting to protect it during the critical early stages of growth.

‘This agreement exemplifies the power of collaboration by companies in the agriculture industry to bring growers the latest technology to improve their productivity,’ stated Kimitoshi Umeda, general manager of Sumitomo’s international agrosolutions division.