AG Fort: Sea6 Energy’s Novel Solution for Viral Diseases

By Sowmya Balendiran, Designation - Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Sea6 Energy

The enormity of Plant Viral Diseases and its impact on our planet

Plant viral diseases lead to a crop yield loss of $60 Billion worldwide each year, which is more than 70% of the GDP of the world's economies. Major targets for viral diseases are high-value crops such as Papaya, Chilli, Tomato, Citrus, Cucurbits, Grapes, and other vegetable crops. Once a field is infected by virus, it leads to a yield loss of 70-100% in severe conditions.

Conventionally, plant viral diseases are managed either by breeding new resistant varieties or by using chemical insecticides to control vectors such as aphids, whiteflies, and thrips. However, the fast development of resistance against newly bred varieties and advanced chemical insecticides demands novel approaches for the virus management. And excessive use of chemical pesticides has already raised concerns regarding human health and environmental safety. 

The Organic Immunity Booster for Viral Diseases and Better Yields

Activation of plant natural immune system against virus infection is a less explored space. Herein, Sea6 Energy has developed a novel and sustainable product that works uniquely by triggering the plant’s innate defence system. We aim to harness seaplant-derived active ingredients' potential in triggering plant defence pathways.

AG Fort: The Prophylactic Biodefence for Viral Diseases  

The development of AG Fort marked as the beginning of our journey in this direction. The usage of a sustainable and non-conventional product that complements existing approaches will contribute substantially to agriculture. It will aid in limiting pesticide use and help reduce the harmful effects of pesticide residuals on human and animal health.

AG Fort is a unique and proprietary formulation to enhance plant immunity against various viruses with a defined mechanism of action called SUPR™ Pathways Technology. It is a 100% natural prophylactic solution for boosting plant health derived from extracts of red sea plants. It upregulates defence-related genes and improves the plant's overall health to increase endogenous immunity against viral incidences.

AG Fort’s Advanced Technology

AG Fort utilises the Specific Upregulation Pathogen Resistance (SUPR™) pathways technology improving plant health and growth, which provides a significant impact at an ultra-low dose rate. For multiple crops, several agronomy trials have been conducted using AG Fort against a broad spectrum of viruses which has shown up to a 60% reduction in crop loss as compared to untreated crops. The return on investment for the growers is more than 5x, depending upon the crop type.

Field trials conducted with AG Fort

We have identified and characterised the active ingredients responsible for the biodefence activities. The unique Active Ingredient of AG Fort is in the final stages for product patent in multiple geographies worldwide. It is certified organic by leading agencies of global standards. It is the first biodefense product included in the Package of Practices by GKVK, a National Agriculture Institute of India. In addition, we have complete control over the raw material age and quality with our SeaCombine® powered cultivation technology.

SeaCombine^® Technology

We have incorporated the ″Quality by Design″ approach into our manufacturing processes to produce products of the highest quality and consistency. Every batch of the product manufactured is subjected to analytical assays and plant bioassays. We use High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and biochemical techniques to ensure all the batches adhere to specific molecular signatures.

Future plan of Sea6 Energy

In India, AG Fort has been sprayed across 5.4 million hectares for a variety of crops like Tomato, Chilli, Capsicum, Cucurbits and Papaya. Agrogain, the patented biostimulant of Sea6 Energy, is already proving its potential in America, LATAM, Europe and Asia. And now, we are ready to introduce AG Fort in the international markets as well. We are also in the final stage of developing bio-defence products for fungal and bacterial diseases, allowing us to provide a complete solution for crop protection against infections. 

We are a research-focused company that wants to build relationships with international partners to make our products available globally. Our global partners are large companies with expertise in their industry. These companies bring, to the table, an understanding of the local markets in terms of the crops to be focused upon, end-user buying behaviour, channel strategy, and more.

We look forward to utilizing the potential of the ocean sustainably and ethically to build a whole new economy based on marine biomass. We aim to work with more sole distributors and bring the benefits of its sustainable technology to farmers worldwide.

This article was initially published in the magazine 2022 Biologicals Special.