The global seed treatment market is forecast to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% between 2011 and 2016. A study issued by US third-party reports retailer ReportsnReports.com (Dallas, Texas) indicates that the market was worth $2,250 million in 2010 and is set to reach some $3,430 million by 2016. It is the fastest-growing segment of the crop protection market due to the rapid adoption of high-value genetically modified seed and increased government support for the practice, ...

Italy has extended the suspension on the sale and use of neonicotinoid insecticide-based seed treatments on maize for a further year. The country suspended several seed treatments in 2008 over concerns that they were contributing to the mass death of bees, termed colony-collapse disorder (Agrow No 561, p 10). They included BASF’s fipronil-based seed treatments, and those containing Bayer CropScience’s clothianidin and imidacloprid, and Syngenta’s thiamethoxam. The Minister of Agriculture, ...

The government of China's northern Hebei province has signed a pesticide procurement contract with the Chinese Jiangsu Pesticide Research Institute (JPRI), reports the national newspaper, the AgriGoods Herald. The JPRI will provide 1.4 tonnes of seed treatment containing the insecticide, imidacloprid, to Gaocheng county in Hebei, for local farmers to use on wheat seed. This is the first case of government procurement of an imidacloprid seed treatment in China. It will be enough to treat 3,333 ...

Bayer CropScience has agreed to supply its seed treatment, Poncho Votivo, to Monsanto for use in its Acceleron seed treatment range for soybeans in the US. Poncho Votivo combines the insecticide, clothianidin, and a Bacillus firmus-based bionematicide. The product controls a range of insect pests, including white grubs, seed corn maggots (Delia platura) and soybean aphids (Aphis glycines), as well as soybean cyst nematodes (Heterodera glycines), the companies point out. Bayer and Monsanto have ...