DuPont announced construction on two state-of-the-art Integrated Seed Science Network centers. These facilities will be dedicated to developing and testing seed treatment formulations, applications and seed handling techniques. The first center will be located in Wilmington, Deleware, with a scheduled opening date of fall 2014, and Johnston, Iowa will follow with a center opening in summer of 2015. These centers will play an integral role in the expansion of the DuPont seed treatment portfolio.
"Seed treatments play a vital role in the success of a crop – from protecting seeds from pests and disease to complementing germplasm and traits to promoting plant vigor and stand establishment,” said Mick Messman, director of the DuPont Seed Treatment Enterprise. “DuPont Pioneer and DuPont Crop Protection have come together under the DuPont Seed Treatment Enterprise to develop a superior pipeline of integrated products to meet the demands of our customers around the world. These new facilities will support us in that mission.”
As part of this new venture, DuPont launched several new seed treatment products this year under the DuPont Lumigen brand, including the release of Dermacor seed treatment products in the Brazilian soybean market and DuPont Lumiderm insecticide seed treatment for canola in Canada. DuPont is launching DuPont Lumivia insecticide seed treatment for 2015 U.S. spring planting. It will be available in the Pioneer Premium Seed Treatment (PPST) lineup as PPST 250 plus DuPont Lumivia for select Pioneer brand corn products.
The new seed science centers will build on the existing pipeline of seed treatment products and combinations by allowing DuPont to test new formulations under different environmental conditions. These conditions can be manipulated in the centers to create treatments to meet grower needs.
"The testing at our seed science centers will help us understand all of the dynamics of seed treatment application,” said Messman. “Gathering this information is beneficial not only to us, but to our collaborators and customers as we will be able to better identify and develop improved seed treatment application combinations and techniques.”
