The agrochemical industry is one that has suffered from blatant infringement of patents over the past two years by Chinese companies selling generic products in the UK and throughout Europe. This move follows infringements in 2005 and 2006 by Chinese generic manufacturers at the conference relating to the promotion of pesticide active ingredients for which there were no patents in China. It should be emphasised that the inclusion of generic manufacturers reflects the overall trend within...

The university is also trying to develop sugar cane that is genetically modified to produce a vaccine to protect against rotavirus, a viral infection. In the short term, dry conditions likely mean more wildfires, poorer grazing and reduced yields for non-irrigated crops such as winter wheat, Jones said. Summer water deliveries to California's orchards and farm fields are expected to be largely unaffected because previous wet years have created sufficient storage in reservoirs and...

Keeping acreage the same, but trimming yield a minor 5 bushels per acre to equal the 2005 crop level of 148 bushels per acre would erase about 400 million bushels from the crop estimate. This year could be the biggest challenge to producers yet when it comes to keeping your head clear from all the extreme predictions. Trimming acreage 2 million acres because of planting delays would cut about 300 million bushels off the crop. No one has any idea at this point if the predicted 90 million...

City and county officials said they plan to spend the next few months working on ways to strengthen the local law with provisions that could include fertilizer-free zones, restrictions on fertilizer use during the rainy season and restrictions on the kinds of fertilizers that can be used or purchased in Sarasota. The new law, passed Monday, is expected to be only the first of many new regulations the city and county implement in the next year in an attempt to limit harmful fertilizer...

Farmers need blight fungicides that make the most of the spray days available and give them the best opportunity to keep to their planned spray intervals. Successful potato blight control relies on using effective blight fungicides at appropriate times and spray intervals from crop emergence right through to harvest. In order to ensure complete and effective protection of the canopy, blight products must be rainfast and weather proof, especially if the weather is showery and when the...