AGRICULTURE

DuPont Settles Fungicide Suits: DuPont Co. reached a $4.25-million settlement with four farmers whose lawsuits blamed the company’s Benlate DF fungicide for widespread crop damage. The settlement was reached while a federal jury was in the second day of deliberations of a 5-week-old trial. The case, representing the first of about 400 Benlate suits to come to trial, was watched closely by lawyers and farmers nationwide. It was not immediately clear how the money will be divided among the growers from Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii and Michigan. The growers sought a total of $148 million in compensatory and punitive damages in lawsuits that blamed Benlate DF for ruining their crops.