"The favorable growth in pharmaceutical and agricultural sales and internal measures taken to increase productivity were the main reasons for the improvement," it said.

Lilly had $462 million in agricultural sales last year, while Dow had $959 million.

Most of the trade comes from American agricultural sales, giving the United States a surplus.

The state's agricultural sales first exceeded $30 billion in 2004, making it more than twice the size of any other state's agriculture industry.

Astra Zeneca's agricultural sales are expected to remain flat this year at $2.9 billion, a respectable performance given the industry decline.

The agenda also included arms control, the environment, agricultural sales and efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

The United States earlier waived some restrictions on agricultural sales.

Today, less than 2 percent of farms account for half of all agricultural sales.

The farms, averaging 136 acres, accounted for only 2 percent of all agricultural sales in 1992, the last survey year.

Some states stipulate a minimum number of acres or annual agricultural sales.