b'published in an open source article in the journal Plant DiseasePRODUCT NEWSand is an official confirmation that this devastating banana dis- The Climate Corporation announced a partnership between ease has reached South America, a region where banana is veryits industry-leading FieldView digital farming platform and important crop both economically and socially.Tillable, a first-of-its-kind digital marketplace connecting farmers and landowners. The platform helps farmers access land to expand operations. Now, FieldView farmer customers using PEOPLE NEWS Tillable can more easily share farm operation details, such as Rob-See-Co expands its leadership team with the addition ofplanting and yield data, that theyre already collecting through Ken Nielsen as Chief Operations Officer, overseeing supply,the FieldView platform.logistics and quality. Nielsen brings over 40 years of experience in the seed production industry having held leadership roles for Golden Harvest and Syngenta.BUSINESS NEWSBASF Venture Capital and Canadas TELUS Ventures are Already a senior research associate at NIAB CUF, Dr Stalhamamong the lead investors in a series B investment round for takes up his new role with immediate effect, guiding the over- British startup Hummingbird Technologies, a global leader in all scientific direction, development and management of NIABadvanced crop analytics. Other main investors include Saudi CUFs activities, including knowledge exchange. He will con- Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) and tinue to have close involvement with the executive committee ofthe British investment firm Downing Ventures.the Cambridge University Potato Growers Research Association (CUPGRA), which funds and supplies industry support for potato research. Corteva Agriscience and MicroMGx announced a collab-oration that aims to provide farmers a wider range of novel, microbial-based crop protection products. Under the agreement, Leon Kochian, Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) atMicroMGx will apply its metabologenomics platform to accelerate the University of Saskatchewan (USask), has won the 2019 Arrellthe identification of new natural product starting points. In a Global Food Innovation Award for global excellence in foodfirst for the agriculture industry, Corteva will use those starting innovation. Adjudicated by internationally recognized scien- points to discover and develop naturally derived crop protection tists, the award from the Arrell Food Institute at the Universitysolutions.of Guelph recognizes global research leaders who have made exceptionally significant contributions to scientific understand-ing that will improve food security for the planet. The awardADAMA, BASF, Corteva Agriscience, Nufarm and carries a $100,000 cash prize. Syngenta joined forces to further improve the way crop pro-tection products are handled in Europe by promoting the use of closed transfer system (CTS) technology. The companies are The Euralis Board, following the proposal of the Executivenow each piloting the CTS easyconnect in selected countries Council and its Chairman, has appointed Philippe Saux andto benefit operators, farmers and the environment. Luc Lemaire as Euralis General Director and Deputy General Director, respectively. As the current Director of the Seed Division, Philippe Saux will take up his position as GeneralCorteva Agriscience announced a $500,000 commitment to Director in early 2020. In the meantime, he will continue tocreate the Corteva Agriscience Climate Positive Challenge to undertake development missions at the Seed Division and definecatalyze a movement toward climate-positive agriculture. The strategic projects. grant program will be launched next year and reward efforts that offset carbon emissions and protect the environment while sustaining farms and farmers. The challenge grants will pro-Gro Alliance announces the hiring of Marc Neuman asvide financial rewards to farmers who are already advancing Director, Nursery Services and Business Development. Marcinnovative climate-positive practices for collaborating with local is an industry veteran with a wide-ranging career path start- environmental groups, universities, growers or others in the ag ing in corn genetics licensing and originator relationships withvalue chain to help scale the effort beyond their own acres. GreenLeaf Genetics.He then was the Seed Division Manager with Titan Pro and most recently the COO of Rob-See-Co.Syngenta announced $2 billion will be spent over the next five years to help farmers prepare for and tackle the increasing Professor Ray Dixon FRS has received an internationalthreats posed by climate change. The investment supports a new award for pioneering research to develop more sustainable agri- Syngenta sustainability goal of delivering at least two technolog-culture practices worldwide. Professor Dixon is the recipient ofical breakthroughs to market each year, to reduce agricultures the Adam Kondorosi Academia Europea Award for Advancedcontribution to climate change, harness its mitigation capacity, Research. The award recognizes revolutionary discoveries inand help the food system stay within planetary boundaries. symbiosis and related fields. In a career spanning nearly 50 years Professor Dixon has increased molecular understanding of bio-logical nitrogen fixation (BNF) in bacteria and how this might be applied to growing cereals more sustainably. EUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 45'