Seed is a very high value investment with just one shot for success. Does your seed have the protection it needs to achieve its potential?
I’ve worked in agriculture my whole professional life. One of the single most exciting improvements I’ve been proud to be part of is the advent of seed applied technologies. Working in conjunction with top quality genetics, leading traits, and effective foliar crop protection options, seed applied technologies can deliver a huge improvement in sustainability and productivity.
Seed applied technologies are an integral part of integrated crop management. They offer a number of important benefits. First, they’re a comprehensive tool. A typical pre-treated Corteva Agriscience corn or bean seed in North America features 10 to 12 components acting together as a complex, comprehensive, coordinated set of solutions, all intended to support early-stage plant development. The list includes insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, binders and an identifying color. Increasingly, seed applied technologies also feature biologicals that support seedlings through biotic and abiotic stresses. I expect big steps forward for our biologicals in the near future.
Seed applied technologies allow farmers to plant earlier, spreading workload and enhancing the crop’s potential productivity. At Corteva, we like to say seed applied technologies help farmers “win at the start”, allowing each seed the best chance to achieve its full genetic potential.
Seed applied technologies also support sustainability: a critical and increasingly valued benefit. Because the chemistries are delivered right on the seed, far less product is required than is necessary when insecticide and fungicide are injected alongside seeds or applied post-seeding. Too, pre-treatment of seeds means fewer passes of equipment across a field and greater opportunities for no-till and less-till practices. Importantly, pre-treatment also reduces necessary chemical handling by farmers and reduces operator exposure, enhancing safety.
Seed applied technologies is a focus area in the crop protection field. Corteva is currently investing to find, evaluate, test and ultimately deliver new seed applied technology solutions to farmers around the world. I’m pleased to see more and more farmers learning the benefits of these tools and I’m excited to see what comes next: stay tuned!
By Prabdeep Bajwa – vice president of seed applied technologies for Corteva Agriscience.
