Commissioned by Crop Life America and and the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), Phillips McDougall conducted a study on the discovery, development and registration of new products designed to support modern agricultural production and fight pests and disease around the world.

The Study is available here:

http://www.croplifeamerica.org/sites/default/files/node_images/PM%20R%26D%20S…

Some key notes articulated by Jack Boyne, director of communications for Bayer CropScience:

• 50 percent of the world’s harvest would be lost if pests weren’t controlled 
• it takes approximately 10 years of testing to bring a product to market, during which time half the product’s patent protection is lost 
• products are evaluated not only for possible effects on human health but also for their impacts in wildlife and the environment 
• only one product out of 100,000 evaluated actually makes it to market 
• today’s products are better tested, more selective and more precisely applied than ever before — often a dose is measured in fractions of grams per acre 

Read more on this in “Crop protection products help feed world” (by David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff). http://deltafarmpress.com/news/crop-protection-products-help-feed-world-0312/