FMC‘s acquisition of DuPont research and development assets more than doubled the number of active ingredients in the company’s development pipeline. The need for additional modes of action to fight disease and weed resistance is a reality, and FMC is rising to the occasion.
“It looks like we’re hitting on the major target species and we’re going to be able to provide growers something that’s going to truly help them get back on top of some of the resistant species that we have had trouble with. We’re managing through some of those situations but some of our options keep slipping away and maintaining an acceptable level of management is becoming more and more difficult,” said David Wheeler, Associate Director Technical Services at FMC Ag Solutions.
Wheeler said FMC has wasted no time in launching new chemistries, with Lucento fungicide already approved for 2019 and another fungicide product coming next year. He looks for two new herbicide modes of action to come to market over the next five to seven years. Wheeler believes the company’s focus on crop protection sets them apart.
“FMC is committed to crop protection. There are a lot of folks in our space that have some of the same market-based objectives, but most of our competitors now are in the seed business or in the crop protection business, and with that comes some competition for resources,” Wheeler said. “We’ve got some specific targets we’re working on in the crop protection realm that I think gives us a competitive advantage.”
Wheeler was at the 2019 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Listen to Chuck’s interview with David here: Interview with David Wheeler, FMC