Growing Innovations

For generations, U.S. farmers have continuously adopted new technologies to increase crop yields to produce safe and affordable food for a growing population.

Rapid increases in agricultural productivity began in the 1920s, when farmers replaced horse-drawn equipment with tractors and increased the use of hybrid seed corn. Increased yields continued through the 1940s and 1950s, with use of pesticides to control weeds and insects, and commercial fertilizer applications to improve soil fertility. In the 1990s, breakthroughs in biotechnology allowed farmers to plant seeds containing insect protection traits to prevent pests from damaging crops and reducing yield potential.

Thanks to these and other agricultural innovations, America’s growers and ranchers now produce more food on fewer acres than at any time in our nation’s history. Still, dedicated scientists at Dow AgroSciences continue to work to discover even better ways to grow higher yielding crops.

The newest technology to improve crop yields is SmartStax™, a seed corn trait co-developed by Dow AgroSciences and Monsanto. By combining the industry’s leading in-plant insect protection traits, SmartStax provides the broadest spectrum of protection from pests that live both above and below the soil. By planting corn hybrids containing SmartStax, farmers can protect crops from these damaging insects and increase corn yields at harvest time.

In addition, because SmartStax combines insect protection traits with multiple modes of action, it is less susceptible to the potential for developing insect resistance. All biotech insect-resistant corn acres currently require a certain percentage of refuge corn acres, or non-insect resistant corn acres, in order to prevent the development of resistant insects. Since SmartStax controls pests with multiple modes of action, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has registered the trait with a 5 percent refuge requirement, instead of the traditional 20 percent required for other traits on the market.¹With this new and innovative technology, growers can protect more acres from insects by planting more acres to SmartStax hybrids – resulting in greater yield potential to feed the world.

SmartStax corn hybrids will be available from Dow AgroSciences for 2010 planting in the Mycogen^®, Triumph, Dairyland, Renze and Brodbeck seed corn brands.

Look for even more innovations from Dow AgroSciences in the years ahead. For more information on SmartStax, visit www.MycogenSmartStax.com.