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Confirming Seed Orders STRATEGY A featured segment designed to share business- critical information to seed-selling professionals. Visit SeedWorld.com to download this department and other tools to help you sell seed to farmers. Advancing Seed Coatings and Polymers With the increased demands being place on the seed this niche sector of the industry is set for rapid growth. 34 SEEDWORLD.COM SEPTEMBER 2015 MORE AND MORE seed is seen as the delivery mecha- nism for plant growth stimu- lants and active ingredients that help protect plants from insect disease and fungal pressures. As more inputs are added to the seed it drives innovation in seed coatings and polymers to keep it all together on the seed. In exploring the advance- ments being made in the area of polymers and seed coatings its important to understand the terminology. Bob Legro who serves as INCOTEC Group BV director for research and development explains that when the seed industry talks about treated seed the common under- standing is that seed is treated with a crop protectant. With headquarters in the Netherlands INCOTEC serves the global market with seed enhancement technologies that maximize seed performance. These include upgrading priming disinfection film coating encrusting and pel- leting applying additives and analytical quality testing. Legro defines a seed coating as the formulation thats layered on the seed. He explains that theres film coating which is common practice for field crops encrusting which is a minimal change of the shape and size of the seed to make it easier for handling and planting and pelleting which is a more substantial form of layering to make the seed more round for mostly mechanical planting. In the seed industry the film coating formulation excluding the active ingredi- ents and biostimulants is often referred to as the polymer. Yet as Legro defines it techni- cally speaking a polymer is the binding component in the film coating formulation. Another company thats a key player when it comes to functional seed coatings and polymer technologies is BASF. Seed coatings keep active ingredients and other inputs on the seed and therefore maximize the productivity of the seed and seedling active ingredients says Eda Reinot BASF Seed Solutions direc- tor of research and develop- ment within the Functional Crop Care business unit. It has to be held together on the seed while enabling seed flow through the treatment process and seed plantability. Seed is valuable and so are the applied technologies. Reinot explains that BASF seed coatings have complex compositions that are spe- cifically designed formulated and tailored to meet the needs of specific customers. A polymer she says is a component of a seed coating but it alone would not deliver the functionality needed. Performance Matters Polymers help in multiple ways says Palle Pedersen head of product marketing at Syngenta Seedcare. Polymers help active ingre- dients stay on the seed but its important to note that if the seed hasnt been condi- tioned very well meaning there is lots of dust on the seed from the seed itself the polymers become ineffective and the active ingredients wont stick well to the seed. Effective polymers enable precision planting at the field level making every seed count. PHOTOSYNGENTA.