As a new year begins, we’re delivering innovative solutions that help growers protect their seed investment and maximize yield potential.
As the Corteva Category Leader for Seed Applied Technologies, I collaborate with external groups to understand the needs of our partners and determine how we can bring innovative solutions to benefit growers. My role involves working closely with researchers, product developers, and commercial teams to ensure that we deliver high-quality products that meet the farmer expectations and the demands of the market.
As we review demands of the market, we start with a basic question: Why should farmers embrace seed applied technologies?
Seed-applied technologies are products that are applied to seeds before planting, such as fungicides, insecticides, nematicides, or any other pesticide as well as potential products which enhance the performance of the seedlings. Pesticidal products serve as a shield for growers’ investments, protecting the seed from various biotic and abiotic stresses that can affect their germination, emergence and establishment. Other seed applied products may provide growth benefits from germination to stand establishment.
By enhancing the health and vigor of the seedlings, seed-applied technologies can improve the crop’s resilience and performance throughout the season, resulting in higher yields and better quality.
Why is this more important today than ever? As industry and market dynamics shift, and the economics of inputs change, protecting the seed investment becomes crucial.
The economics of inputs in farming refers to how farmers allocate their resources, such as land, labor, capital and inputs, to produce crops. The concept also considers the variable costs that change depending on the amount of consumption on a farm, such as fuel, electricity, labor, repairs, water and storage.
With these variables in mind, farmers evaluate their expected profits or losses, and make decisions about the optimal level and combination of inputs to use, given the market prices of their outputs and the costs of their inputs.
Farmers face many challenges — such as climate change, insects and disease pressure, soil health and water availability — that can threaten their crop’s productivity and profitability. Seed-applied technologies can help farmers overcome these challenges by providing multiple modes of action targeted at these variables to help get the most out of each acre.
Ensuring Performance
At Corteva, we have a robust portfolio of seed-applied technologies that cover a wide range of crops, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, sunflowers and more. Our goal is to introduce new advanced products that further enhance our offerings and provide farmers with more choices and flexibility. We recognize that each crop, region and field has its own unique conditions and challenges, and we aim to tailor our products to suit these diverse needs.
One of the factors that sets us apart is our commitment to ensuring product performance. We follow a deliberate process of discovery, development and delivery, collaborating with industry peers to screen a diverse array of products. We use state-of-the-art facilities and technologies to test our products for efficacy, compatibility, stability and safety.
We also conduct extensive field trials across different geographies and environments to evaluate our products under real-world conditions. Our emphasis is on bringing different components together to create the best possible product through recipes or combinations that optimize the synergies of each ingredient.
Future Opportunities
We are constantly exploring new ways to enhance our products and expand our portfolio. Thanks to our recent acquisitions of Symborg and Stoller, we have access to a broad and deep biologicals portfolio that complements our existing chemistry products.
Biologicals are products derived from natural sources — such as microorganisms, plant extracts or organic matter — that can be pesticidal, improve plant growth, health and stress tolerance. By combining biologicals with traditional chemistry, we can create novel products that offer multiple benefits to farmers, such as improved nutrient uptake, enhanced root development, increased disease resistance and reduced environmental impact.
One of our recent launches that showcases our innovation and leadership in seed-applied technologies is Lumiscend Pro, a new product for the corn market. Lumiscend Pro adds a new level of protection against rhizoctonia and pythium species and is a component of Corteva’s corn seed treatment package providing long-lasting seed and soil-borne disease protection.
We are eager to continue our journey of innovation and excellence; by working with our partners and farmers, we can create a bright future for agriculture and society.
David Borgmeier is the U.S. Category Leader for Seed-Applied Technologies, Corteva Agriscience.
