On Thursday, Bundrick Farm Partnership filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Arkansas against NutrienAg Solutions, Inc., Syngenta Seeds, LLC, Syngenta Crop Protection LLC and their executives for seed treatment failure at their property.
In March 2020, more than 700 acres of the plaintiff’s farm burned down, and it was subsequently flooded, according to the complaint. The plaintiff said they then contacted NutrienAg to acquire seed for the farm. The plaintiffs knew that the defendant “planned to water seed the rice on Farm 1808 and to use an aerial application on the farm.”
The defendant allegedly sold the plaintiffs Syngenta CruiserMaxx rice seed, and as a safety precaution plaintiff William Bundrick Jr. requested “maximum insecticide application” to the seed to ensure that any rice water weevils would die. The plaintiffs claimed that the crops were good until June 16 “when root pruning, nitrogen deficiency and plants falling over in the water was noticed.” According to the complaint, they found rice water weevil larvae feeding on the plant roots.
The plaintiffs allegedly called the defendants to ask them to inspect the fields, but no one ever did. As a result, the plaintiffs had to drain the fields and ruin the soil to kill the weevils, so their farm “lost all its water and there were significant fertilizer losses.” This also necessitated “additional pumping, application, chemical and fertilizer costs” to restore their farm. The Partnership claimed that no Syngenta or NutrienAg representative ever reached out to them for reimbursement, despite the heavy losses they suffered.
Bundrick Farm Partnership is seeking damages, attorney’s fees and costs, and other relief.
The plaintiff is represented by Trammell Piazza Law Firm, PLLC.
