UPL unveils ‘Open Ag Centre’

India's UPL, which is now the world’s fifth largest agrochemical firm, has announced the opening of its ‘OpenAg Centre’ in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The company has already begun recruiting the 30 agricultural scientists and technical staff who will staff it.

OpenAg is described as an R&D hub, which will enable UPL “to leverage its advanced R&D capabilities in partnership with other innovation-based companies to characterise, develop and commercialise new sustainable agriculture solutions”. It will work with outside chemistry- and biology-based companies, entrepreneurs and scientists and connect directly with UPL’s Agriculture R&D Station Network North and South America, Africa, Europe and South-East Asia to help transition lab research to product development in the field.

Key features include climate-controlled research glasshouses, plus dedicated space for formulation, analytical chemistry and biochemistry laboratories. These will to support application, delivery, characterisation, mode of action and resistance research, spanning fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and crop establishment.

Chief technology officer Adrian Percy commented that the current “painfully slow rate of technology innovation and on-farm deployment” cannot continue. “Our OpenAg purpose is tearing down limits and borders to create partnerships that will transform agriculture by delivering broad value across the entire food production network.”