By Bob Fernandez, The Philadelphia Inquirer via Checkbiotech

Midwest farmers turned this year to a Monsanto Company seed that works with a popular weed-killer and fends off two potentially devastating pests.

As a result, several years of gradual market-share declines in DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred International division in Iowa have widened to a drop of 2 or 3 percentage points this growing season.

Because corn seed is produced over two years, and given regulatory limitations on developing new biotech seeds, Pioneer will likely have a tough 2006 season before it recovers. But Pioneer spokesman Doyle Karr said this week that the rough patch was anticipated as DuPont develops biotech seeds with proprietary traits.

Karr said Pioneer - which has about 35 percent of the nation's corn-seed market, compared with about half that for Monsanto's seed - was still profitable.

The market-share loss has captured the attention of Wall Street. Pioneer is one of DuPont's most profitable and fastest-growing businesses.

It is a gem in the Wilmington company's agriculture and nutrition segment, which brought in about 20 percent of DuPont's revenue, or $6.2 billion, last year. DuPont's stock fell 6.6 percent to $41.15 a share on July 26, when the company announced its second-quarter earnings. The company detailed the loss in corn-seed market share and other problems in its earnings release.

DuPont shares fell 5 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $43 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bill Selesky, equity analyst with Argus Research in New York, said yesterday that the news had caught analysts by surprise.

"Growth in the agricultural side of the business is predicated on selling biotech seed; and when you have a misstep in that area, you have to keep an eye on it," he said. DuPont executives say farmers adopted triple-stacked biotech seeds more quickly than forecast.

Triple-stacked seeds have three genetic inbred traits. One enables farmers to use all-purpose weed-killer Roundup on fields without damaging corn plants. The other traits thwart the corn borer and corn rootworm.

Michael Lee, a professor of plant breeding and genetics at Iowa State University, said the lesson with quick adoption of triple-stacked seeds was that corn farmers viewed the genetic traits for the borer and rootworm as insurance on crop yield. Even if the insects are not a problem in a particular year, the farmer knows he is protected against them.

"You can get burned by not having these additional traits provided by biotechnology," he said.

Copyright: The Philadelphia Inquirer