AgroPages-State-of-the-art efficacy research facility for biological seed treatments-Agricultural news

Innoveins Seed Solutions is a company based in Venlo (The Netherlands) that specializes in conducting R&D projects for seed and crop protection companies. Innoveins supports companies throughout the complete development cycle of a biological product, from early screening to formulation, registration, and demonstration trials. In the last years, Innoveins has developed testing methods that increase the quality and predictability of infection levels of plant diseases in controlled-condition trials. The company was established by Niels Peeters (owner and seed specialist) and Peter Korsten (CEO, Botany Group) as part of the Botany Group, which is a group of companies that can cover the complete testing cycle from laboratory to field testing. Innoveins Seed Solutions was built to specialize in efficacy methods to improve predictability and produce research products for field inoculation and seed treatment in European field testing programs.

Figure 1: Cereal seed treated with a film coat

Biological crop protection products

Due to market changes and changing regulations at the European level, more biological crop protection products are being developed as an addition to or replacement for chemical crop protection products. Due to the fact that seed treatment can be an efficient way of applying active ingredients and can form a stable basis for microorganisms at the seed, film coating technology is a desirable way of applying new products. Although the application procedure or sequence is important, understanding the new technology and the right trial setup are the basis for good results and an indication of potential efficacy.

Figure 2: Tomato Seedling biostimulant efficacy test

Applying biologicals to seed by film coating

Multiple combinations of products are being applied using the film coat technique. This is a technique where multiple products with a similar mode of action are combined with a binder and an appropriate amount of water to form a so-called slurry, which causes a uniform distribution of the treatment product around the seed. By using chemicals, compatibility was already an important topic for potential incompatible chemicals. Although biologicals, highly loaded substances, and living microorganisms, together with the selection of binders, application sequence, and product preservation within the formulation, are important to reach the full potential of the products applied with the seed.

Selecting the right trial setup

Selecting the right trial method is one of the key parameters for expressing biological seed treatment product performance. Innoveins Seed Solutions developed multiple testing platforms to test against soil-borne pathogens, seed-borne pathogens, Biostimulants, herbicides, and nematodes. Within those platforms, we are able to efficiently test a lot of modalities and treatment types in a short time at affordable costs. Due to the predicatable inoculation and climate methods, we guarantee sufficient and controlled infection levels during trials.

Figure 3: Setting up dose response trials for biologicals

Our role in seed treatment testing and developments

Innoveins Seed Solutions is a turn-key research station for seed treatment testing and has strong relations with many crop protection and seed companies to be an independent company that can give feedback on product performance from early screening, formulation, registration, and demonstration of new products applied to seeds from. This is done for both a biological and analytical standpoint. As an expert collaboration partner, we also provide support as an independent quality control partner for biologicals and as an intermediary between investors or potential buyers of new seed treatment technologies, providing both parties with sufficient biological information to make potential collaboration decisions.

Figure 4: Trichoderma competition against rhizoctonia

The future of biological seed treatment integration

Seed treatment is a strong growing market, and the implementation of biological and new chemical products is important to reduce the use of crop protection products in general for the replacement of biologicals and to replace some of the spray applications in the early plant growth phases. In the short term, we expect hybrid seed treatments to be biological but supplemented with regular products to reduce the total amount of chemicals used. We need good formulation adjuvants and microplastic free binders for compatibility, enhanced uptake efficiency, and reduction of leaching into the soil to make steps towards more sustainable agricultural practices. More important is to go towards fully biological solutions that can secure sufficient and safe food production. By having good testing methodologies that are adapted to biologicals, we can observe the potential of all the new technologies.