London, United Kingdom
November 12, 2009

Dow AgroSciences and DuPont tied for top number of honours at Agrow’s second annual industry awards held last night at London’s Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel.

The gala event saw each of the two companies scoop three awards, with Dow receiving awards for best new crop protection product, best novel agricultural biotechnology and best formulations innovations while DuPont was rewarded for most innovative chemistry, best innovation in non-crop and best off-patent pesticide strategy.

“We had a tremendous response to these awards in terms of applications, sponsors and attendees,” explains Sanjiv Rana, Editor in Chief of Agrow. “Our 14 categories were well-contested and both winners and shortlisted finalists deserve the highest praise for their contributions to our industry.”

In addition to the six awards picked up by Dow and DuPont, Monsanto took honours for the best R&D pipeline, promising big advances for the future. Best supplier to the crop protection industry was judged to be Saltigo; while best company from an emerging region went to Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group.

The award for best supporting role went to the US industry association, CropLife America, for its Eco Roadmap Project, which brought together scientists and government and legal affairs experts to address a range of environmental issues affecting the industry.

CropLife Canada won best public outreach programme and Brazil’s pesticide container disposal organisation, the inpEv, took the award for best stewardship programme with its vast network for handling used containers, resulting in an impressive disposal rate of more than 60%.

Dr Chris Richards, CEO of Arysta LifeScience scooped the industry’s best manager with strategic vision award for his successful five-year growth plan aimed at optimising the company’s supply chain, product development processes and human resource management.

Finally, this year’s lifetime achievement award was presented to Monsanto’s executive vice-president and chief technology officer, Dr Robert Fraley. Considered one of the “founding fathers” of agricultural biotechnology, Dr Fraley was the leader of a team of scientists that invented novel methods for transferring genes to plant cells.

“Dr Fraley’s early vision of the potential for biotechnology to transform agriculture brought the first genetically modified crops to the market in the 1990s,” says Rana. “Today, he remains at the forefront of Monsanto’s efforts to introduce the next generation of GM crops and this award is very well-deserved.”

A panel of 12 judges marked and scored each entry with some five entries per category being chosen for the nominations shortlist. Agrow Awards attendees enjoyed a champagne reception and dinner before the announcement of the award winners in each of the 14 categories.

“The standard of entrants was extremely high for this year’s Agrow Awards,” continues Rana. “We congratulate our deserving winners and the many runners-up who have worked so hard during this past year.”

Agrow will host the third annual Agrow Awards in November 2010, which coincides with the publication’s silver jubilee year.

Website: http://www.agrow.com

Published: November 12, 2009