OREANDA-NEWS.  March 13, 2014. Agrium Inc. (TSX and NYSE: AGU) announced that its extensive precision agriculture offering will be re-branded as “Echelon”, formerly NutriScription HD.

Agrium has been a leader in the field of precision agriculture for over a decade and until recently offered its technology solutions under the name NutriScription HD. Agrium’s North American-based Crop Production Services retail business currently provides precision agriculture services on over 15 million acres throughout North America.

Agrium is rebranding its platform as Echelon, which includes best in class solutions for precision soil sampling, variable rate nutrient and seeding recommendations, yield data analysis, weather monitoring, precision field scouting and tissue sampling, aerial imagery analysis, record keeping and reporting. Echelon’s compatibility with most major equipment and controller manufacturers enables growers to access and act on their data from one system.

Under the Echelon brand, Agrium will remain committed to providing grower customers easy access to their information and expanding the technology solutions it provides with continued focus on seeding rates, nitrogen management and advanced analytics. Echelon is currently available in the US and Canada.

“Agrium holds a unique position as the largest agriculture retailer of products and services to growers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and South America. We service over 500,000 growers globally and provide products and services for hundreds of different crops. We intend to continue to expand on our position as the leading provider of agronomic advice, and our Echelon platform provides the grower with the very latest technological tools and advice to help them maximize productivity and profitability from their operations,” commented Chuck Magro, Agrium’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

About Agrium

Agrium Inc. is a major Retail supplier of agricultural products and services in North America, South America and Australia and a leading global Wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural nutrients and the premier supplier of specialty fertilizers in North America. Agrium’s strategy is to provide the crop inputs and services needed to feed a growing world. We focus on maximizing shareholder returns by driving continuous improvements to our base businesses, pursuing value-added growth opportunities across the crop input value chain and returning capital to shareholders.