The NDGGA awarded Alan Ayers the 2016 Kernel Award, which is given to a member of North Dakota’s agricultural business community who has shown outstanding service in North Dakota wheat and barley industries.
Alan Ayers earned his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from North Carolina State University. He has more than 30 years experience in the agricultural crop protection industry, all of which have been with Bayer CropScience and its predecessor companies.
Ayers is from Bear Grass, North Carolina. He got his start in agriculture picking tobacco and cotton. In 1985, Ayers began his career at Bayer CropScience in product development and later moved into the environmental affairs department as the technical issues/stewardship manager. In 1994, he joined the global regulatory team and transferred to Lyon, France in 1997, accepting the position of global regulatory team lead for the herbicide and fungicide team. Ayers became the global regulatory manager and team lead for insecticides in 2000. In 2001, he returned to the United States, accepting the position of director of environmental affairs.
Ayers has worked on many new crop protection products during his career, successfully registering or stewarding their safe use. His success in implementing stewardship plans for the insecticide/nematicide Temik, the herbicide Balance (recently in MN/WI) and the seed treatment (Poncho) is highly notable.
Ayers strongly believes in the environmentally responsible use of crop protection products. He is the immediate past chair of the Conservation Technology Information Center, an organization dedicated to promoting technologies and sustainable agricultural systems that conserve and enhance soil, water, air and wildlife resources while being productive and profitable.
Currently, Ayers works as Director of Stakeholder Relations and Stewardship in the NAFTA Bayer CropScience headquarters located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. His group is responsible for stakeholder-industry relations with state and national commodity and trade associations, state regulatory affairs with the departments of agriculture, stewardship and sustainability.
Ayers is married, has four children and resides in Cary, North Carolina.