15 October 2019
An article from Farmers Weekly worth reading:
“Biostimulants are being heralded as part of the solution to many of the challenges facing today’s arable farmers – from plugging the gaps in the declining fungicide armoury to dealing with the effects of climate change.
One of the fastest-growing markets in agriculture, the biostimulants sector is made up of a huge range of products and product types, all put under one umbrella category for convenience. Within that, it is often split into two groups: microbial and non-microbial.
Described as anything – other than fertilisers and pesticides – that can be added to the plant.“
18 May 2021
As reported in this FW article, Dr. Shah’s conclusions can be summarised as:
… where fungicides were reduced the biostimulants had significant positive effects in reducing disease levels and increased yield.
Crops on the drought-prone Cirencester soils responded particularly well: “Biostimulant treatments with lower fungicide inputs had significantly higher green flag leaf area compared with reduced fungicide plots,” he explains.
“In a high disease pressure year, fungicide will perform better, but based on these trials, it can be concluded that biostimulants have a place under low or zero fungicide input systems.
Soil bacteria and mychorrhizal fungi have also proven to have a significant effect on yield, but we do need to do further research and trials to identify when and how to use biostimulants for maximum effect.”
With the launch of Syngenta’s first Biostimulant ‘Quantis’ they highlight the importance of Biostimulants and the role they can play in supporting crop health.
For more information:
https://www.syngenta.co.uk/news/biostimulants/biostimulant-interest-hots
Plant biostimulants have gained great interest from the agrochemical industry and farmers because of their ability to enhance nutrient use efficiency and increase abiotic stress tolerance in crop production.
This study focused on the environmental assessment of the biostimulant action of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices and vegetal-derived protein hydrolysate on greenhouse vegetable crops under different fertilisation regimes.
The results showed that an increase of nitrogen fertilization from 15 to 45 kg N ha-1 in spinach production enhanced the total CO2 emissions per ton of harvested leaves in comparison with treatments that involved the foliar applications of protein hydrolysate with a lower nitrogen input. Read the research paper …
18 May 2021
New type of micronutrient fertiliser seed treatments were used on maize, winter oilseed rape and sunflower seed crops in the 2021 season.
“Growth nutrition products derived from natural sources provide a unique opportunity to help farmers to move towards practices that have both financial and environmental benefits,” said Andre Negreiros, Seed Applied Technologies Leader, Europe at Corteva Agriscience.
“We are proud to see this solution adopted across Europe and contribute to more sustainable farming practices. This is the first time that we see such wide use of a technology of this kind with great performance and results.” Read more here ..