New biostimulant seed treatment set to boost wheat yields with reduced fertilizer use

Date:03-02-2023

Wheat farmers seeking to increase yields while reducing fertilizer inputs are set to benefit from a new collaboration between Syngenta Crop Protection and Aphea.Bio announced on March 1^st, 2023.

The collaboration aims to accelerate the introduction of a novel biological seed treatment solution across multiple countries in Europe over the next five years, pending regulatory approval. This places a much-needed technology in the hands of farmers seeking to improve the sustainability of their farming operations, and to address challenges arising from an increasingly constrained toolbox of available agricultural technologies as well as evolving consumer demands.

ACTIV^® by Aphea.Bio is a biostimulant applied as a seed treatment on wheat that is based on beneficial microorganisms. By improving the crop´s nutrient use efficiency, it enables as much as five percent higher yields even with reduced fertilizer use.

″We are excited to announce this collaboration with Aphea.Bio, which supports our important ambition of helping feed ever growing populations in more sustainable ways,″ said Jonathan Brown, Head of Global Seedcare at Syngenta Crop Protection. ″It demonstrates our commitment to bringing novel, nutrient use efficiency solutions to growers, helping safeguard yields if nitrogen inputs are reduced. Combined with our leading conventional seed treatment portfolio, ACTIV^® by Aphea.Bio will offer a unique value proposition in a fast-changing EU landscape.″

Isabel Vercauteren, CEO and co-founder of Aphea.Bio, said: ″We are excited to launch our first wheat biostimulant in partnership with Syngenta. We are joining forces to build a more sustainable and profitable future for European farmers. And this is just the beginning.″

An introduction of ACTIV^® by Aphea.Bio will represent an additional building block in the strategy to achieving healthy soils by supporting crops through beneficial microorganisms. It furthermore has the potential to contribute to the goal of the European Union’s Green Deal to reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers inputs.

About ACTIV^® by Aphea.Bio:

ACTIV^® by Aphea.Bio is an innovative and safe biostimulant containing a proprietary bacterial strain of the genus Stenotrophomonas rhizophila, which through several modes of action contributes to better growth of wheat plants treated with the product. The strain possesses multiple characteristics involved in adhesion, biofilm production, motility, chemotaxis, uptake and transport of nutrients from the plant, enabling it to successfully colonize the root endosphere. Furthermore, the strain has the potential for inorganic P solubilization and the production of siderophores to enhance the plant update of iron through chelation.