Croda: Spray Quality Control – A Sustainability Case Study

Neil Stainton

Market Insights Manager at Croda

Email: neil.stainton@croda.com

With an ever-increasing demand for affordable, high quality food production to feed a growing population, farmers are under increasing pressure to deliver a plentiful supply of safe, nutritious products to meet these rising expectations. At the same time, increasing awareness of environmental issues, regulatory constraints and consumer concerns regarding modern farming practices and pesticide use are encouraging the industry to seek innovative solutions to improve productivity, biodiversity, safeguard soil health and maintain the longer-term stewardship of the natural environment.

 
Whilst agricultural crop spraying is a well-established and effective means of pesticide delivery, in recent years this has come under increased scrutiny, with concerns having been expressed regarding off-target spray drift and its role in damage to susceptible non-target crops, the impact on human health (both agricultural workers and resident populations) and environmental damage to wildlife, including surrounding vegetation, beneficial insects and birds.

 
At Croda, the industry-leading provider of sustainable crop protection additives and adjuvants*, we have identified an unmet need to improve spray quality and manage drift control at the same time as ensuring effective active ingredient delivery to the target site.  Working with our customers, we have developed Atplus™ DRT-EPS, a novel tank mix adjuvant product that combines the benefits of improved spray retention, wetting and spreading with enhanced spray quality control in a single product.  This has been shown to be effective in combination with a wide range of formulation types and active ingredients.  One of the outstanding features of the product is that, unlike typical nonionic surfactants (NIS), Atplus DRT-EPS provides enhanced adjuvancy performance without an adverse effect on spray quality.  Whilst many surfactants reduce spray droplet size, resulting in an increase in driftable fine particles or ‘fines’, Atplus DRT-EPS produces a narrower spray distribution pattern with fewer driftable fines, enabling more targeted droplet delivery across a range of nozzle types and spray pressures.

 
As a multi-functional adjuvant with strong sustainability credentials, Atplus DRT-EPS is part of the growing Croda Elevated Bio-based Content (EBC) range, containing a high proportion of renewable, plant-based material, enabling formulators and farmers to reduce their overall carbon footprint.  It delivers enhanced formulation performance with less product waste in addition to a reduction in spray drift and a lower risk of damage to surrounding habitats, providing both economic and environmental benefits.

Atplus DRT-EPS is the most recent addition to a list of 15 OMRI Listed products and part of a growing family of over 100 inert ingredients in the Croda portfolio suitable for use in certified organic food production in accordance with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP).  In developing this range, we recognise the rising consumer demand and commercial interest in organic food production, respecting the need to preserve biological diversity and the responsible use of natural resources.

 
As part of Croda’s commitment to be Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030, this is just one example of how we are contributing to our stated sustainability goals of increasing agricultural crop yields and global food security whilst reducing overall environmental impact.  Our extensive range of high-performance products enable formulators to accomplish even the most challenging objectives.  From naturally derived additives for improved formulation stability to novel adjuvants for optimum delivery, sustainability is at the heart of the Croda business.  With industry-leading technologies including 100% bio-based surfactants, wetting aids, penetration enhancers and spray quality enhancement agents, this enables formulators and growers to take a more environmentally sensitive approach to achieving the best yields for their crops.

Performance data of Atplus DRT-EPS

Product design features

• Readily disperses in tank mix – no additional products required

• At least 65% of the material is coming from renewable chemistry

• Mild surfactant

• Replacement for conventional NIS with improved spray quality control
  

Product information

Efficacy and spray performance

The information presented in Figure 1 and 2 is a snapshot of the data that supports the claim that Atplus DRT-EPS can provide improved biological efficacy and control spray drift. We conducted greenhouse trials on corn using a baseline spray application (Figure 1, no adjuvant) of 51 g clethodim/ha, 603 g ae glyphosate/ha and 0.96% w/w AMS, to assess the improved biological efficacy Atplus DRT-EPS can provide. The results show the percentage of injury 21 days after treatment (DAT) with Atplus DRT-EPS indicating improved efficacy over the baseline spray as well as the standard NIS and at half the use rate of the high surfactant methylated seed oil (HSMSO).

Figure 1. Biological data for greenhouse trial of SelectMax¹ clethodim (51 g/ha) + Touchdown² Hi-Tech glyphosate (603 g ae/ha) + 0.96% w/w AMS on corn

To demonstrate how Atplus DRT-EPS can control droplet size, it was tested at various use levels in a 1% w/w ae glyphosate and 2.5% ammonium sulfate (AMS) solution (Figure 2, no adjuvant). The glyphosate solution increased the percentage of driftable fine droplets in comparison to water but was reduced by the addition of Atplus DRT-EPS. 

Figure 2. Volume of driftable fine droplets (%<105 µm) generated from spraying water, a 1% w/w ae glyphosate and 2.5% AMS solution, and the inclusion of Atplus DRT-EPS at various levels using a TJ8002 flat fan nozzle at 40 psi

* Two recent accolades that accurately justify Croda’s leadership position to be the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients are the EcoVadis Platinum medal which places Croda in the top 1% of all companies in all industries and ranked 1st in Barron’s recently published rankings for 2020 (therefore judged to be The Most Sustainable non-U.S. Company).
¹ Trademark of Valent
² Trademark of Syngenta

This article will be published in AgroPages '2021 Formulation & Adjuvant Technology' magazine to be published this May.

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