I am in Japan now with Chuck and will be spending much of this week posting interviews and pictures from last week’s BASF trip while Chuck is covering the IFAJ events. So, I am starting at the beginning of the trip and posting the interviews with BASF executives done after the global press conference September 12.

Research and development of agricultural products was one of the topics during our visit to BASF in Germany last week.

Peter Eckes is Senior Vice President for Crop Protection R&D and he talked with journalists on the trip about the newest BASF product in the pipeline which is currently going under the name of BAS 800H. “BAS 800 H is a herbicide which will be beneficial for US farmers in the area of soybeans and corn,” Eckes said. “It can be used as a pre-plant burn down and also in post emergence applications.”

Eckes says the compound will also prove beneficial for other crops as well. “It’s BASF’s philosophy that we focus on active ingredients that can be globally developed,” he said. “Down the road we see many applications and that’s the reason we believe it will be a blockbuster.”

Eckes also talks about how they make decisions about research and development areas.

Listen my interview with Peter Eckes here:
basf-eckes.mp3

View the Flickr Photo Album from BASF in Germany and Brussels