John V. Boyne is director of communications at Bayer CropScience.

To know why three of the world's top crop-science companies selected North Carolina for their North American headquarters, look at the example of Bayer CropScience. According to Bill Buckner, president and CEO of Bayer CropScience's US operations, "You can't beat North Carolina in terms of location, weather, proximity to top research universities, quality of life, housing options, amenities like RDU International Airport, access to highly qualified job candidates, and much more." North Carolina's allure also attracted Syngenta, headquartered in Greensboro, and BASF, headquartered in Research Triangle Park.

The global crop-science industry focuses on inventing, developing, manufacturing, and selling products and services that improve the production of food, feed, and fiber, and also protect homes, other structures, and recreational areas from damaging pests. Today's crop-science businesses typically focus on some mix of crop protection, biotechnology, seed production, and environmental health. The technologies and products researched and perfected by these companies in each of these areas are essential to meet the needs of a growing world population and associated global challenges.

North Carolina, with its abundance of resources, is an ideal springboard for technology, innovation, and success in these areas. About one in every five North Carolinians works in a job related to agriculture, which contributes $59 billion a year to the state's economy, or one-fifth of its income.

The crop-protection industry provides insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides to help growers provide a safe, abundant, and affordable food supply. Without these products, studies show that nearly 50% of the world's harvests would be lost to insects, weeds, and diseases.

Bayer CropScience leads the $32 billion global crop-protection market, followed by Syngenta and BASF. Although the crop-protection market has declined over the years, it still represents the bulk of the global crop-science market, and innovation remains a crucial element of its success. Products once measured in pounds of active ingredient per acre are now applied in fractions of grams. In addition to conventional applications of modern crop-protection products, the use of seed treatment, in which the chemical is applied directly to the seed, has gained popularity in recent years. Seed treatments allow products to be precisely applied in extremely low doses, providing protection during germination and plant growth.

Today's products are used in integrated management programs, where the pest - but not the beneficial organisms that help reduce pest populations - is targeted. Highly selective chemistry is one reason that the US farmer is one of the most efficient producers in the world. In 1960, a US farmer fed about 26 people; today, one farmer feeds 129.

In recent years, the effects of rising energy and raw-material costs, adverse weather, increasing generic sales, and the adoption of new technologies into the farmer's crop-management arsenal put pressure on the crop-protection market. As this trend continues, crop-protection companies in North Carolina have met the challenge by redesigning their organizations, improving their offerings, cutting costs, and focusing their efforts in new growth areas, such as plant biotechnology.

The relatively new field of plant biotechnology, or agricultural biotechnology, has already made a tremendous global impact. Plants enhanced through biotechnology deliver a range of benefits to farmers and society through increased yields, simplified crop management, higher farm incomes, and the adoption of farming practices that reduce agriculture's impact on the environment.

America's adoption of agricultural biotechnology grew fast. In 2006, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that 61% of the corn (48.4 million acres), 83% of the cotton (12.68 million acres), and 89% of the soybeans (66.68 million acres) planted in the US were biotech varieties. Today, approximately 60% to 70% of the processed foods available in US grocery stores contain ingredients derived from biotech crops.

North Carolina ranks second in agricultural biotechnology in the United States, with more than 30 companies. Additionally, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center estimates that agricultural biotechnology had tremendous impact in 2006, boosting food and fiber production in the state by 57 million pounds, improving farm income by $64 million, and reducing pesticide use in the state by 1.4 million pounds.

Nonagricultural solutions for communities and society make up a third focus of crop science. As a state offering everything from wilderness and botanical wonders both natural and synthetic, to world-class golf retreats such as Pinehurst, North Carolina provides fertile ground for companies involved in environmental health. Bayer CropScience's environmental-science business group certainly finds this to be the case.

Bayer CropScience's consumer-products business consists primarily of the Bayer Advanced product line, which was introduced in the United States in 2000. This product line has grown to become one of the leaders among consumer home, lawn, and garden products. These products are sold to consumers in retail garden centers and nurseries.

The company's professional business focuses on the so-called green industry, the professional pest-management industry, and the so-called vector market. The green industry includes golf courses, lawn care, and ornamental plant production. The professional pest-management business includes products for control of general pests (cockroaches, ants, and the like) and termites. The vector business provides mosquito-control products to local and state governments, mosquito-abatement districts, and others for community-spraying programs.

Crop-science companies also benefit from local universities. North Carolina State University, for example, offers one of the best overall agricultural programs in the country. Bayer CropScience and NCSU collaborate on several projects, including growing high-density tobacco for potiential use in the production of plant-made pharmaceuticals and a process for extracting biomaterials from plants cleanly and efficiently. Studies such as these could be crucial to developing new innovative technologies, in which plants become our factories of the future.

Overall, North Carolina benefits crop-science companies, and in turn they strive to benefit the state and its citizens. As the industry expands beyond the farm gate, crop-science companies in North Carolina will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of this field.