CropLife International

How Plant Biotechnology Made Brazil a Major Agriculture Exporter

From Importer to Exporter: How Plant Biotechnology Made Brazil a Major Agriculture Exporter Interview with Adriana Brondani, Executive Director, Conselho de Informações sobre Biotecnologia (CIB), Brazil Conselho de Informações sobre Biotecnologia (The Council for Biotechnology Information – or CIB), Brazil, is an association that shares accurate information about plant biotechnology and its benefits, especially to […]

Reflecting On Successes And Challenges Of Biotech Crops

20 Years Of Innovation: Reflecting On Successes And Challenges Of Biotech Crops Interview with Craig Rickard, executive director for plant biotechnology at CropLife International. This post was originally published by Forbes.com on 25 August 2016. In 1996, farmers planted the first commercial biotech crop. The global uptake of plant biotechnology by farmers since has made it the […]

Using Social Media to “Agvocate” for Farmers and Scientists

Using Social Media to “Agvocate” for Farmers and Scientists Interview with Dr. Lindsay Chichester Dr. Lindsay Chichester is one of a growing number of online “agvocates” who are sharing information about agriculture from the perspective of farmers and scientists. We caught up with her to learn more about her work, and how social media plays […]

Tackling Uganda’s Banana Crisis

Tackling Uganda’s Banana Crisis Interview with Mr. Erostus Nsubuga, founder and chairman of Agro-Genetic Technologies, Inc. (AGT) The banana is a very important part of the Ugandan diet with 70 percent of the population eating the fruit every day. However, as Banana Bacterial Wilt is devastating banana crops across the country, eradicating the disease has become […]

A History of Biotech in Europe and the Path Forward

Biotech in Europe: History and the Path Forward An interview with Beat Späth, Director for Agricultural Biotechnology at EuropaBio This year, the European Union approved three new biotech soya bean products for import. We spoke with Beat Späth, director for agricultural biotechnology at EuropaBio, about the history of plant science, what the new approvals mean […]

Farmers Find Their Voices

Farmers Find Their Voices Interview with Cherilyn Nagel, Farmer, Saskatchewan, Canada Tell us about yourself and your work. My family lives and works on our farm, where we raise our daughters and grow canola, durum, chickpeas and lentils. This past year, I’ve also been working with Farm and Food Care, a new association whose mandate […]

An Industry Committed to Helping Farmers Grow

An Industry Committed to Helping Farmers Grow By Robert Hunter, Executive Director, Crop Protection It is easy to understand why farmers need crop protection products when you consider that there are 30,000 weeds, 10,000 insects and 50,000 diseases competing with us for our food. In fact, without crop protection products it is estimated that 86 percent […]

Public-Private Partnerships: Eradicating Poverty Through Education

Public-Private Partnerships: Eradicating Poverty Through Education By Andy Medlicott, Executive Vice President, Latin American & Caribbean Region, Fintrac* If we want to eradicate rural poverty in the developing world, educating farmers and giving them modern tools and strategies is critical. In Honduras, public-private partnerships designed to deliver this education are bringing together development organizations, governments […]

Agriculture and Biodiversity Can Thrive Together

Biological diversity – or biodiversity – generally refers to the huge variety of life on planet Earth. Ahead of the International Day for Biological Diversity, on May 22, we spoke with Caroline Drummond MBE, Chief Executive at Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF)*, to ask how, with the help of Integrated Farm Management (IFM), agriculture and […]

Why Canada’s Farmers Choose Herbicide-Tolerant Canola

Ever since it was developed in 1995, herbicide-tolerant canola has quickly grown in popularity and today it is farmed on 99 percent of canola acres in Canada. We spoke to Dr. Curtis Rempel, Vice President of Crop Production & Innovation for the Canola Council of Canada, to find out why herbicide-tolerant canola is so popular […]

Good Agricultural Practices Increase Yields in Honduras

Good Agricultural Practices Increase Yields in Honduras Cecilia Mejía Domínguez, small-scale farmer, Honduras Farmer Cecilia Mejia Dominguez lives in western Honduras where she raises livestock and grows maize, potatoes and strawberries. Cecilia recently participated in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ACESSO project, which provides training in good agricultural practices. In this video, Cecilia […]

Argentina’s No-Till Pioneer

Argentina’s No-Till Pioneer Five questions with Roberto A. Peiretti, farmer and agricultural engineer, Argentina Tell us about yourself and your farm. My farm produces corn, soybeans, sorghum, wheat and cover crops near Cruz Alta, Cordoba Province, in the Central Pampas region of Argentina. I trained as an agronomy engineer and hold a Masters in Science […]

The Passion Behind Plant Science

The Passion Behind Plant Science By Dennis Gonsalves, Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology at Cornell University and retired former director of the Daniel K. Inouye USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hawaii. As a plant scientist, I’ve always felt that my job is to address problems. While working on my MS degree, my professor […]

Why This Farmer Changed His Mind on GM Crops

UK farmer Paul Temple once lobbied to keep genetically-modified (GM) crops out of Europe, but after he saw how they could boost farm productivity and sustainability first hand, he changed his mind. Today, he is one the strongest proponents for the technology. We asked him what changed his mind. Where and what do you farm? […]

Recognizing Our Part in the Ecosystem

Recognizing Our Part in the Ecosystem Interview with Jim Borel, Recently Retired Executive Vice President, DuPont How did you develop a passion for agriculture and plant science? I grew up on a farm in Iowa and have been involved with agriculture my entire life. As a farm kid, I have always been interested in agriculture […]