Aug 3, 2018

Meadows-Smith named independent director at Crop Enhancement

Crop Enhancement, a company specializing in sustainable agrochemical products for enhancing crop yields, has appointed Marcus Meadows-Smith to its board of directors. Meadows-Smith will assist the management team with the development of business models and go-to-market strategies designed to position Crop Enhancement for success as it begins to commercialize its technology.

Meadows-Smith is currently CEO of BioConsortia, a discoverer of microbial crop protection and enhancement products. Prior to that, he guided the biopesticide business AgraQuest over a four-year time frame, culminating in that company being acquired by Bayer CropScience for over $400 million. Following Bayer’s acquisition of AgraQuest, he became head of biologics for Bayer CropScience. Previously, Meadows-Smith had a 14-year career at Chemtura Corporation, assuming multiple managerial roles and ultimately becoming executive vice president for a $2 billion portfolio of businesses that included crop protection, consumer products, and plastics additives.

Crop Enhancement is to launch its first crop protection product, CropCoat. The material has been successful in field trials with cacao growers, showing double-digit yield increases. In addition, the company said CropCoat has shown strong efficacy in controlling mites, a prominent pest of fruit and vegetable crops.

Beyond yield and profit increase, CropCoat can deliver to growers the added benefits of no regulated residue (no minimum residual levels, or MRLs), pest resistance management, fewer spray applications, and lower costs, according to Crop Enhancement.

“Crop Enhancement has achieved the two most telling milestones for the success of a startup in agriculture – indeed for any product or company in agriculture – by generating great field trials results, as well as excitement for product adoption by key partners and major players in the food value chain,” Meadows-Smith said., “Crop Enhancement is well positioned to gain registrations, identify partners who can deliver rapid growth, and then collaborate with them to maximize crop yield.”

Crop Enhancement’s products target major fruit and vegetable crops worldwide across regions that include North America, Southeast Asia, greater China, Latin America and Africa. To boost crop yields in these regions, Crop Enhancement has developed proprietary films and formulations that modify plant surfaces (leaves, stems, fruit and seeds) to improve their resistance to pests and diseases, and decrease the need for harmful pesticides. Crop Enhancement’s formulations can also be applied with agricultural inputs like nutrients, fertilizers and other active ingredients, enabling farmers to reduce costs and increase crop yields, according to the company.