Will Advanta’s Igrowth sorghums be able to reverse the declining trend in the crop?

 

Advanta Seeds Marketing and Development manager in Argentina, Tomás Sundblad, is really enthusiastic with its creature: the new hybrids of sorghum imidazolinone-resistant.

 

“I’m seeing the excellent response of farmers, here in Argentina but also in Uruguay”, Sundblad tells to eFarmNewsAr. “This technology, full-developed in Argentina, is a great solution to fight annual grasses both in pre-emergence as in post-emergence stages”.

 

Obtained by mutagenesis, these sorghums developed tolerance against imidazolinone family herbicides. Scientists from Advanta obtained both male and female lines with this tolerance, that only express in the F1 hybrids. As imidazolinone resistance is a homozygous recessive character, adventitious sorghum is easily controlled by these herbicides, because they have not the tolerance.

 

“This is an enormous advantage for farmers. In Uruguay sorghum is a most important crop than corn, but many farmers were leaving the crop due to the difficulties to control weeds. Now, they are retaking the production thanks to this technology”, Sundblad explains.

 

The Advanta Seeds’ official detailed that in the present campaign 30K hectares were planted in Argentina with this Igrowth technology and another 30K in Uruguay. It’s an encouraging start”, he adds.

 

According to the AgroIndustry Secretariat statistics, sorghum is a declining crop in Argentina. Versus 1.25 million hectares planted in the 2011/12 campaign, in this 2018/19 season, the planted area was cut to modest 570K hectares. Hence, Igrowth area represents 5% of the national area.

 

This season Advanta Seeds offered to farmers two grain hybrids: ADV 1250 IG (an intermediate-short cycle) and ADV 1350 IG (a complete cycle hybrid). But last week the company presented a double purpose hybrid, the ADV 2450 IG. This completes the Igrowth technology portfolio.

 

Sundblad remarks that Igrowth sorghums yield potential is equal to or higher than conventional ones. “Last year (2017/18), in a very bad season, we have been noticed about 10,000 kilograms per hectare yields in Arroyito zone. This campaign plots still have not been collected, but farmers tell us about a high yield expectative. We will share the data as soon as we have it”, he stresses.

 

“We estimate that for the next season 70K hectares of Igrowth sorghums will be planted in Argentina and another 50K in Uruguay”, Sundblad says.