ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the pesticide industry and look for those key driving forces that are changing the traditional pesticide markets and threatening the sustainability of the industry. Pressure for industry sustainability comes from different stakeholders, among them legislators, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), competitors, shareholders, company leaders, customers, suppliers and employees. Most companies with pesticide divisions bought into the seed business in the 1970s and 1980s, but the race to profit from crop biotechnology has led to a rash of large investments to guarantee access to agricultural biotechnology and to seed markets. Pesticide companies actively developing this technology include Monsanto and Novartis, starting with cotton, maize and potatoes. Pesticide industry, any shift to technologies for sustainable agriculture must involve considerable investments in biocontrol and biopesticides. Although pesticides have a bad reputation with the greater public and with important stakeholders in major markets, the industry is risking, with biotechnology, a repeat of its earlier mistakes.
