Bio-conventional emerging sector within the crop protection industry

Martin Brown, CEO of Intelligent Pest Management Company, Exosect, discussed the landscape of the agrochemical industry at the CropWorld North America Conference held in North Carolina, a hub for the US Crop Protection industry. Speaking at the event, Brown remarked on the encouraging signs that the industry is following the path of the pharmaceutical sector in adopting an Open Innovation business model and this is leading to the emergence of a new ‘Bio-Conventional’ sector where the lines between products using conventional chemistry and biocontrols are becoming blurred to create sustainable solutions for food production.

However, Brown warned that this is still not enough to foster innovation as quickly as could be achieved and suggested that there is a need for a virtual industry platform to facilitate industry collaboration and innovation. Brown put to the audience that in order to meet the challenge of food security whilst using the planets resources sustainably, the crop protection industry needs to work harder to foster innovation and to do this it needs to further open the channels of communication.

"Collectively we need to work harder. It has taken Exosect a number of years to develop relationships across the industry and it’s through these relationships that we have learned the true scope of our technology.  There are a significant number of emerging innovative companies that are only just beginning to understand the full potentional of what their technology can achieve. The industry needs to nurture these young companies as they hold to key to advancing innovation and developing products that feed the planet but do not literally cost us the earth.”