Scott, Mississippi
May 28, 2002

Delta and Pine Land Company (NYSE:DLP), a leading commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, today announced it has established DeltaMax Cotton LLC, a joint venture with MaxyAg, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Maxygen, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAXY). The DeltaMax joint venture will create, develop and commercialize value-enhancing traits for the cotton seed market that will complement and/or compete with traits available today. DeltaMax will contract research and development activities to MaxyAg, D&PL and third parties when appropriate, and license its products to D&PL and potentially to others.

D&PL and MaxyAg will each own 50 percent of DeltaMax. D&PL expects its commitments to the venture will entail annual costs of approximately $0.03 per diluted share until products are commercialized, which is expected after 2007. The modest expense is due to narrowly focusing the joint venture on three product profiles with significant value to cotton farmers.

Murray Robinson, president and chief executive officer of D&PL, said, "This agreement is another step in our strategic plan to deliver value to farmers through the best technologies on terms which are favorable to D&PL. This joint venture will give us meaningful ownership rights to the technology rather than relying solely on third party trait providers to license their technologies to D&PL. Since we do not anticipate commercializing new traits developed by this venture until after 2007, we will continue to work with several other companies, which are currently developing cotton traits, which we may be able to offer in our elite germplasm to cotton producers in key global markets as early as 2004. Although our current business model of relying on licensed technology continues to be profitable for D&PL and its shareholders, we are working to position the Company to be less reliant on third-party providers."

W. T. Jagodinski, senior vice president and chief financial officer of D&PL, said, "This venture provides a strong technological and financial platform to create value for our farmer customers as well as our
shareholders. Promising results from initial tests of lead product candidates developed using MaxyAg's proprietary technologies lead us to believe there is great upside to this investment of capital and resources. When compared to the amount D&PL receives under its present licenses, we expect to more than double our portion of the value of the technologies targeted by DeltaMax. Although investing in actual trait development is a new activity for D&PL and is a longer-term endeavor, taking the traits from the laboratory and the greenhouse through development to commercialization are areas where we have significant expertise and experience. The traits we hope to develop in DeltaMax, coupled with D&PL's extensive germplasm base -- a key determinant in farmer planting decisions -- will provide us with significant revenue and earnings growth opportunities later this decade."

Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land (NYSE: DLP) has offices in eight states and facilities in several foreign countries.