Scott, Mississippi
January 7, 2003

Delta and Pine Land Company has been increasing research and development expenditures from $3.8 million in 1992 to $18.1 million just a decade later. These funds are used in a number of breeding and testing programs and have enabled the company to open new research stations in Georgia and Texas, as well as further develop its global network in Europe, South America and Australia. D&PL has also enhanced testing efforts underway throughout the Cotton Belt. These significant investments combined
with the global seed industry, including public and private sectors, shift toward intellectual property protection has lead D&PL to pursue patent protection on new, elite varieties.

"We have been able to increase funding and activities in our research and development programs in the past several years, adding conventional and transgenic programs to better meet the needs of our customers," says Dr. Bill Hugie, D&PL vice president of research. "These expansions in facilities and scope are producing important genetic breakthroughs for cotton in terms of yield and quality as well as agronomic characteristics. Farmers are getting a glimpse of some of the breakthroughs our researchers have made but the coming years will produce even greater developments."

D&PL is committed to maintaining its leading edge in research aimed to provide cotton farmers products with superior revenue potential according to Tom Jagodinski, D&PL's president and chief executive officer. "The global marketplace continues to gain complexity and several industries have already undergone the shift toward greater intellectual property protection," Jagodinski says. "Within the seed industry corn and soybean providers have employed the patent process to protect investments internationally. We have already utilized patents in our soybean program and believe the level of cotton development and investment D&PL makes in cotton research warrants protection as well."

Patents are among the strongest means of intellectual property protection available for plant varieties, the primary product of traditional breeding companies like D&PL. The ability to obtain patents on plant varieties will provide continued investment in plant breeding and related research that benefits farmers and the breeders that serve them.

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 almost 90 years, the Company has used its extensive cotton plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop improved
varieties. Delta and Pine Land (NYSE: DLP), headquartered in Scott, Mississippi, has offices in eight states and facilities in several foreign countries.