Monsanto Co is hosting a "Bee Summit." Bayer AG is breaking ground on a "Bee Care Center." And Sygenta AG is funding grants for research into the accelerating demise of honeybees in the United States, where the insects pollinate fruits and vegetables that make up roughly a quarter of the American diet.

Syngenta and DuPont announced technology licensing agreements that will broaden each company's crop protection product portfolio and enable both to bring new products to market more efficiently.

Goss's wilt of corn often is most severe after fields are exposed to high winds and/or hail damage, because the causal bacterium readily infects corn leaves through wounds.

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) and Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), have reached new cross-licensing agreements for creation of the next generation of advanced weed and insect control technology in corn.

The continual evolution of weed species and populations resistant to herbicides from one or more mechanism-of-action families represents one of the most daunting challenges faced by weed management practitioners. Currently in Illinois, biotypes of 12 weed species have been confirmed resistant to one or more herbicide mechanisms of action.

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) and Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), have reached new cross-licensing agreements for creation of the next generation of advanced weed and insect control technology in corn. Monsanto will license Dow AgroSciences’ new Enlist™ Weed Control System herbicide-tolerant trait for use in field corn. Dow AgroSciences will license Monsanto’s third generation corn rootworm technology, Corn Rootworm III, which is presently under development by Monsanto and offers a new mode of action for rootworm control. The agreement paves the way for introduction (pending regulatory approvals) of next-generation products that build off the current SmartStax® platform, which includes Dow’s Herculex and Monsanto’s insect resistance and herbicide-tolerance traits. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

With diseases like white mold popping up in drilled soybeans, farmers are always looking for a better way to preserve and potentially boost soybean yields.

Because of widespread drought conditions experienced over the past year, many growers are concerned about the potential for carryover injury from herbicides applied in 2012 to the crops they will plant in 2013.

Corn growers need to scout their fields to determine wireworm populations before planting so they don't miss the optimum treatment window, a Purdue Extension entomologist says. Wireworms, or click beetle larvae, feed on corn seed germ and may prevent plants from sprouting. The pest becomes active when soil temperatures warm into the upper 40s.

Fierceâ„¢ Herbicide (active ingredients: flumioxazin + pyroxasulfone), the newest residual from Valent U.S.A. Corporation, has received US EPA registration in soybeans. Fierce, which received registration for corn earlier this year, is now available to soybean growers for the longest-lasting, broadest spectrum control of broadleaves and grasses, including species that are resistant to glyphosate and other chemistries.