BASF launches HiCoat Dry, Argentina's first solid bioinoculant

Multinational BASF made a significant announcement of the launch of the solid inoculant HiCoat Dry during the Aapresid Congress 2024, held in Argentina.

This new product is a biofertilizer for soybean application, featuring a high concentration of bacteria (Bradyrhizobium japonicum, strain E109) that promote nodulation and fix atmospheric nitrogen.

According to BASF, HiCoat Dry provides 1x10¹⁰ CFU/g at production and no less than 1x10⁸ CFU/g at expiration (equivalent to 80,000 viable bacteria per soybean seed). The manufacturer described it as a ″significant innovation in inoculation, offering benefits both for the producer and the applicator.″

This is Argentina's first solid inoculant for soybean cultivation, giving it a longer shelf life and higher concentration. Until now, BASF noted, biological inoculants available on the market were only offered in liquid or peat formulations.

″Thanks to its innovative format, it will save space, reduce costs, and lower environmental impacts in the logistics of the inoculant,″ the multinational pointed out.

Because it is solid, the company highlighted that HiCoat Dry requires less shipping and storage volume compared to existing liquid products. This will reduce the mix of applications and lower transportation impacts on the environment, BASF assured. 

According to them, the solid format also allows for better handling by users, less waste, a longer shelf life, and more days for pre-inoculation.

HiCoat Dry is a technology developed in Argentina at the production facility in the city of Santo Tomé, and will be exported worldwide from there. 

″This new technology represents an innovation in format, with various benefits for the environment and seed treatment processors,″ BASF summarized.

″The HiCoat Dry biofertilizer is excellent news for Argentine producers, who are always open to receiving genuine innovations in modes of action and active principles that enhance their management strategies,″ said Gustavo Portis, Director of BASF's Agricultural Solutions Division for Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia.

According to him, BASF’s focus is ″to offer innovation to local producers with deep knowledge of their farming systems, thus helping them overcome challenges.″

″The products we are launching are yet another sign of how at BASF we promote innovation through research and development, tasks in which we invest 2.5 million euros per day globally. In the current context it is very important to have innovations like those we are presenting at this Congress, which are highly useful for the producer's work,″ Gustavo Portis said in conclusion.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)