TOWARDS THE RATIONAL DESIGN OF CROP PROTECTION AGENTS

The crop protection industry has consistently provided new and improved products during the past forty years. The discovery process has, to a large extent, relied upon empirical procedures and imitative chemistry to generate these compounds. Although these methods will continue to be employed, it is envisaged that additional technology will be incorporated into the process and in this respect the development of molecular biology, computational sciences and biophysical techniques is discussed. The successful integration of these skills requires an open and communicative environment involving multi-disciplinary research groups.