Monsanto to Supply Soybean Herbicide to DuPont

Monsanto will supply the herbicide dicamba to DuPont for products used on genetically modified soybean crops under a multi-year agreement announced this week.

The new DuPont herbicide will be marketed as FeXapan plus VaporGrip Technology. Farmers will apply the substance to Monsanto soybean seeds modified to resist the herbicide.

DuPont officials said the deal followed years of tests involving novel soybean traits and dicamba formulations.

Monsanto, meanwhile, said that the agreement signified a commitment to its Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System, which utilizes seeds that resist a combination of dicamba and glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide.

As the use of glyphosate in agriculture dramatically increased in recent decades, an increasing number of weeds developed resistance to the herbicide.

"This advance will help farmers manage weed competition while improving crop safety as they work to increase production to meet global food demand," DuPont crop protection president Tim Glenn said in a statement.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both Monsanto and DuPont are considered part of the "big six" biotechnology firms and both were involved in a recent wave of consolidation in the chemical industry. Monsanto explored mergers with Syngenta and later Bayer, while DuPont is preparing to merge with Dow Chemical.