Smart Fertilizers for Nutrition Ambition

As farmers around the world seek to grow more with less, a British crop nutrition company is finding success with its growing portfolio of ‘smart’ fertilizers – many of which will find interest amongst Latin America’s most ambitious farmers.

″Agriculture’s reached a tipping point,″ says Dr David Marks. ″The truly progressive farmers are those who are thinking ahead: how can I grow crops more sustainably, without compromising yield, production, or quality?

″Most importantly, how can we grow crops in the 21st century without exhausting our planet’s limited resources?″

To help farmers find answers to these questions, Dr Marks founded Levity Crop Science: its raison d’être is to ‘move crop nutrition on’.

″It’s frustrating that while we’re getting excited about the latest technologies around use of drones and satellites and sensors and how to leverage the internet of things in agriculture, our approach to crop nutrition has rather stalled."

″Equally, farmers are frustrated that crops don’t respond to simple trace elements and micronutrients,″ he acknowledges.

″Look at the crop, decide what nutrients it needs, work out how to source those nutrients, apply them to the crop – and essentially hope for the best."

″There’s an all-pervading view that if we throw the right nutrients at the crop, they’ll work.″

Improving resource-use efficiency

But Dr Marks says this thinking is misleading and wasteful. Nitrogen, for example, is used by the crop in a variety of forms – each a different compound, with a different molecular structure, and each used in a specific way by the crop.

″Failure to distinguish between amine, nitrate and ammonium means that we apply two-thirds more nitrogen than the crop can use. Not only are farmers seeing extremely poor resource-use efficiency, but we’re seeing the effects of that excess in water pollution and greenhouse gases – nitrates and nitrous oxide."

″Then there’s phosphate, use of which has quadrupled in the last 50 years as food production has increased. Yet nearly all our phosphate is dug out of the ground in huge quantities, from reserves estimated to have only a few decades left – and when you look at something like triple superphosphate, the crop can extract just 4%. Again, that leads to widespread pollution in rivers and seas.″

Tackling this ‘sheer unsustainability’, as he describes it, is the objective for all the products in the Levity portfolio. They’re ‘bioactive’ compounds, carefully designed to take advantage of the complex biochemical processes that happen within plants.

″Within every crop it’s these biochemical reactions that give us food, feed, fiber, or fuel: leaves, fruit, tubers, nuts, seeds. Agriculture is based on biochemical reactions, and crop nutrition or crop protection products interact with, or influence, these reactions to change plant behaviors.″

Most crop nutrition products are passive, explains Dr Marks. To be transferred to the plant’s transport system, farmers rely on uptake through roots or leaves. But every nutrient behaves differently.

″Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much product you apply,″ he says, ″because the plants only take in a small amount. Calcium’s an example: it only moves upward within the plant. Foliar calcium? Mostly wasted. The plant can’t move it to where it’s needed – fruit, say.″

Research & Development

Levity’s research and development starts with the nutrient: understand its behavior, then track the biochemical pathways. At this point, Dr Marks’ team of scientists embarks on a search for compounds that stimulate better uptake or improve transport within the plant – a process he likens to ‘supercharging’ the plant’s metabolic pathways.

″Our products use those existing pathways and allow the crop to help itself.″

It’s not just about improving efficiency. Dr Marks points to increasing acceptance that, just as in human health, nutrition affects plant health. Give a crop a balanced set of nutrients and it becomes less susceptible to attack from pests and diseases.

″Most nitrogen-containing fertilizers boost vegetative growth. That makes plants weak and more susceptible to disease. Then you need a fungicide program, or a plant growth regulator.″

But choose the right form of nitrogen and farmers might avoid the need for these extra products. Fewer bought-in inputs would be good for the crop, good for soils, good for the environment and good for the consumer. 

″Who wants to continue the never-ending cycle of resistance? One active substance, metalaxyl, is approved for carrot cavity spot in the UK; it’s no surprise that Albina [Levity’s calcium-based cavity spot control] has been so well received by growers.″

Expanding Distribution

Active – and growing – in its domestic UK market, exports account for more than 70% of the company’s revenue. 

″Levity’s products are widely used on staples such as wheat and rice and potatoes, but the same principles – better yield, higher quality, environmental responsibility – find favor with growers of blueberries, grapes, citrus, tomatoes and other economically important crops.

″Distributors also like the product range,″ he points out, ″because it’s diverse and fills important gaps in their portfolios. It’s also built on sound science, unlike many crop nutrition products. Most importantly, growers like the products – they can see clear results.″

Levity Crop Science is seeking partners and distributors in Latin America for its range of smart, bioactive fertilizers. Contact Dr David Marks at info@levitycropscience.com.

This article was initially published in AgroPages' '2022 Latin America Focus' magazine.