Delta and Pine Land Company (NYSE: DLP) is celebrating its tenth anniversary on the New York Stock Exchange today as President and CEO Tom Jagodinski and others from the company ring the trading floor's closing bell. The ringing of the bell will be 4 p.m. Eastern time and is scheduled to air on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

"The past decade has been a time of innovation for D&PL and the farmers who plant our varieties," Jag said. "We have brought our customers new breakthroughs in genetics and technology by having a vision and working hard to realize that. Farmers are, by nature, independent people. They appreciate the entrepreneurship D&PL offers and the fact that we can partner with several suppliers. Those are some of the reasons they've chosen to invest their money in our products and stock - we are proud that they have chosen to invest their money [of that investment] in our plan for growth."

D&PL's growth strategy for the U.S. is largely based on pairing the company's elite germplasm with the best value-added technologies. The string of technological breakthroughs at D&PL in the past decade includes:

• Breeding research
  Genetics are at D&PL's core and consistent improvements are achieved each year. The Company has expanded its breeding programs to include additional stations in the U.S., Greece and Brazil. The breeding and testing program is global and fully integrated to bring the world's most promising germplasm to American farmers. D&PL's extensive molecular breeding program includes successes in fingerprinting varieties and identifying markers and traits of interest.
• Biotechnology
  The Company revolutionized the industry by introducing the first Bollgard varieties in 1996. We are currently working with genes developed by Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow. In addition, D&PL's DeltaMax joint venture with DuPont through Pioneer is working on traits for insect resistance, herbicide tolerance and nematicide properties.
• Operations
  The Company was the first in the cotton industry to move to bulk packaging in its trademarked BollBox delivery system. We have also pioneered seed count and sorting technologies for cotton. A system providing minimized inputs until the time of sale, similar to just-in-time manufacturing, has reduced processing and carryover costs.

Delta and Pine Land Company is a leading commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed. Headquartered in Scott, Mississippi, with multiple offices in eight states and facilities in several foreign countries, D&PL also breeds, produces and markets soybean planting seed in the U.S.