Dr. Johnny R. Thomas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AgriBioTech, Inc. (ABT) (NASDAQ National Market: ABTX) announced that Mr. Randy Ingram, formerly assistant CFO, was appointed CFO on November 2, 1998, and Mr. Henry Ingalls, Vice President and formerly CFO, will continue as Vice President focusing on capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, and SEC reporting activities.

According to Dr. Thomas, "this re-alignment of duties has been planned for some time. The changes reflect the maturation of AgriBioTech, Inc. from a primary focus on growth through mergers and acquisitions to a primary focus of operating the sixth largest seed company in the world. Mr. Ingram was recruited for his exceptional seed operations experience with Novartis and previously Northrup King Co. Mr. Ingalls will continue as an officer focusing on capital formation and mergers and acquisitions with me and working with Mr. Ingram on extemaI reporting activities.

Prior to joining ABT, Ingram was Head, Business Planning and Development at global headquarters of Novartis Seeds AG (Basel, Switzerland), the world's second largest seed company. Prior to that position, he served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Northrup King Co. (Minneapolis, MN), at the time an operating unit of Sandoz Seeds, Ltd. In his position at Novartis Seeds he coordinated global strategic and annual business planning processes, and served as leader of technology licensing and acquisition efforts. He also led new business development efforts in various crops including the grasses sectors. As Vice President of Finance and CFO at Northrup King Co., Ingram headed all traditional finance activities including accounting, reporting, budgeting, long-ranae, financial planning, management information systems, and financial analysis. Prior to his service at Northrup King, Ingram held increasingly important positions in auditing and finance at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. He began his career as an auditor at Peat Marwick, currently KPMG Peat Marwick, LLP (KPMG). He is a Certified Public Accountant, with extensive postgraduate work in executive education at leading U.S. and European institutions.

Mr. Ingalls joined ABT in April 1996 after a career with KPMG spanning nearly 28 years, including 18 as a partner. According to Dr. Thomas, "Mr. Ingalls has been instrumental in overseeing all phases of ABT's finance function during this period of rapid growth. He has been actively involved in capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, treasury and cash management, accounting and reporting, financial strategy, income and other tax matters, and employee benefit matters. ABT's growth and size dictate this is the appropriate time to transfer many of these responsibilities to others in the organization to allow Mr. Ingalls to focus on the areas above."

N1279