However, with numerous pressures mounting against ag-chem companies such as the advent of biotechnology, increased international regulatory standards (and costs), competition from generic product manufacturers, and the sky-high investment required to bring new molecules to market, the discovery business has seen the level of critical mass required for survival grow larger and larger. Names that dominated the ag-chem market in the past 20 years such as Ciba Geigy, ICI, Shell, Rhône-Poulenc, Hoechst, Schering, Eli Lilly, American Cyanamid, Stauffer, Zeneca, and Aventis all have been swept together by the wave of consolidation that has left us today with six major crop protection superpowers: 巴斯夫公司, 拜耳作物科学, 陶氏益农, 杜邦作物保护, 孟山都，和 先正达.
But the consolidation efforts of the majors has not been limited to ag-chem businesses. Sensing the importance of biotechnology in the future of agriculture, each of the “Big 6” has made moves to acquire seed and biotech companies to increase its influence in all areas of crop protection.
像这样的举动让一些业内人士感到担忧。由于发现业务的参与者越来越少以及开发新型化学物质的成本很高，人们已经感受到新化学物质引进的放缓，随着六大巨头更加关注特性，传统的化学发现可能会更加缓慢。
总的来说，六大巨头一直非常公开他们对传统化学的承诺，尤其是那些具有更好的环境概况和超特定目标的化学。
尽管如此，该行业仍然存在发现放缓的问题，还有一个更大的问题：整合是否停止了？还是六巨头离五巨头不远了？