Marrone Bio Innovations' new plant health product, Pacesetter, delivers a six to one return on investment for corn and soybean farmers

Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI) (NASDAQ: MBII), announced Monday that its foliar plant health product for row crops, Pacesetter, showed outstanding performance in 2020 field trials in the U.S. Midwest. Grower demo trials saw an average of a six-to-one return on investment with improved yield of 6.4 bushels per acre in corn and 3.3 bushels per acre in soybeans.   

“Growers and distributors are very pleased with the results they saw from the Pacesetter field trials,” states Timothy Knight, senior director of North and Central American sales. “Using Pacesetter to produce healthier, higher-yielding plants, is an excellent example of how a BioUnite™ approach – combining biologicals and traditional chemistry – can help growers achieve the highest return for their crop.”

Pacesetter is recommended for use with conventional fungicides to increase leaf chlorophyll content and improve plant health resulting in increased crop yield beyond what synthetic fungicides alone can generate. Developed for row crops such as corn, soybeans, cereal grains, cotton and more, Pacesetter has been shown to improve overall health and crop vigor, resulting in increased yields and profits.

More than 90 field trials conducted throughout the Midwest during the 2020 growing season showed Pacesetter, when combined with a conventional fungicide, out-yielded fungicide use alone. Average return on investment in the trials was above six to one and numerous plant health benefits were witnessed. For corn, longer and wider ear leaf size, increased number of corn kernel rows, and longer and healthier corn kernels were observed. Soybeans had healthier plants and more pods per plant.

In the past, MBI’s foliar products have been focused on specialty crops in the U.S. West and East Coast. With the introduction of Pacesetter, MBI is now able to reach the vast corn and soybean acreage of the Midwest – expected to be over 179 million acres in 2021, according to a November 10, 2020 USDA report. The introduction of the plant health product will provide growers with a novel solution to improve yield and return on investment.

Pacesetter is currently available for sale in the U.S. and is approved for use on corn, soybeans, cereal grain, cotton and more.

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  Yutian Lu

  yutian.lu@agropages.com