Syngenta Seedcare: Driving Plant Establishment Solutions through Powerful Partnerships and Game-changing Innovation

Date:07-03-2024

Farmers face many challenges, including the impact of climate change, shifts in pests and weather, as well as the pressure to produce more with less inputs. Seed treatment, including biological seed treatment, has a critical role to play in helping farmers combat these challenges. The global biological seed treatment market is projected to grow from $0.6bn in 2020 to $1.6bn by 2030. Syngenta Seedcare, the world’s leading seed treatment business, is poised to shape this growing market, through both groundbreaking innovation and strategic collaborations, to ensure solutions are placed into the hands of farmers, faster. With the ability to promote healthy crop establishment, safeguard plants from pests and improve their ability to access available nutrients – right from the beginning of life, biological seed treatment solutions are a critical enabler of sustainable farming.

Syngenta Seedcare and Bioceres Crop Solutions bring innovative biological seed treatments to the market

Syngenta Seedcare’s investment into biological seed treatment has increased significantly in recent years, with the landmark commercial, and research and development (R&D) collaboration deal signed with Bioceres Crop Solutions in 2022. Under the agreement Syngenta Seedcare is the exclusive global commercialization distributor for Bioceres’ leading biological seed treatment solutions, benefiting farmers everywhere. Under the long-term R&D collaboration, the companies are jointly undertaking the development of new products while accelerating the registration of products already in the pipeline. 

The agreement with Bioceres strengthens Syngenta Seedcare’s strategy to provide farmers with more complementary choices to manage pest resistance and improve crop health, according to Jonathan Brown, Global Head of Syngenta Biologicals and Seedcare. ″Biological products play an important role in offering farmers new solutions to increase crop yields while reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint. We believe our approach to be the industry collaborator of choice, best evidenced through the collaboration deal with Bioceres, allows us to advance these goals more rapidly in a time of significant global need for new solutions.″ 

Syngenta and Unium Bioscience to bring novel biological seed treatment to northwest Europe

This quest to be the industry collaborator of choice has seen additional strategic partnerships reached, including with Unium Bioscience, to bring breakthrough biological seed treatment solutions based on NUELLO^® iN, to farmers across northwest Europe. In addition to helping improve nutrient use efficiency, increase crop yield and promote plant health, the collaboration is an exciting first step toward seed-applied biofertilizers. NUELLO^® iN naturally improves a plant’s ability to convert and use nitrogen readily available in the atmosphere and has the potential to reduce nitrogen use by more than 10 percent. Through this collaboration, Syngenta has exclusive access to the product NUELLO^® iN and is the exclusive commercial distributor across northwest Europe for Unium’s TIROS^® biological seed treatment. NUELLO^® iN works by combining bacterial strains produced by Intrinsyx Bio with Unium’s prebiotic stimulant, and functions within the plant to convert freely available nitrogen from the surroundings into a form the crop can use.

″Syngenta Seedcare is unlocking the future of farming by encouraging sustainable practices and helping farmers reduce their carbon footprint while increasing yields,″ Mr Brown said. ″Our long-term partnership with Unium leverages the power of innovation to bring a unique biological solution to farmers across northwest Europe, that will reduce the environmental impact of farming while increasing crop yield, promoting plant and soil health, and offering farmers greater flexibility in their nitrogen management strategies. At a time when nitrogen use and sustainability are front of mind for farmers, we are proud to give farmers more choice and more flexibility in their nitrogen management.″

Syngenta offers NUELLO^® iN in the UK, with commercial distribution across Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to follow.

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

Wheat farmers seeking to increase yields are benefiting from a new collaboration between Syngenta and Aphea.Bio that is accelerating the introduction of a novel biological seed treatment solution across multiple countries in Europe over the next five years. 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.

″Our collaboration with Aphea.Bio, demonstrates our commitment to bringing novel, nutrient use efficiency solutions to farmers, helping safeguard yields if nitrogen inputs are reduced,″ Mr Brown said. Combined with our leading conventional seed treatment portfolio, ACTIV by Aphea.Bio^® offers a unique value proposition in a fast-changing European landscape.″

Syngenta sharpens biologicals focus with launch of its first biologicals service center for seed treatment

Syngenta Seedcare has further strengthened its focus on biologicals and extended its leadership in seed treatment with the opening of its first biologicals service center at the Seedcare Institute^® in Maintal, Germany. Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, the center addresses growing farmer demand across Europe for biological seed treatment solutions. Syngenta Seedcare currently operates 18 Seedcare Institutes with more than 120 experts globally, with additional biological service centers are set to be added to more Seedcare Institutes in future.

″Our leadership in biological innovation and seed treatment is built on our ability to constantly enhance and adapt our service offers,″ Mr Brown said. ″This new biologicals service centre enables the successful use of biologicals as seed-applied solutions through shared practical knowledge and resources. As the industry collaborator of choice, we look forward to launching new solutions together with our partners.″

The biologicals service center in Maintal offers specialized expertise to support the application of new biological seed treatments. These include extensive competence in microbiology – from understanding the viability on-seed and in-mixture with other active ingredients, the ability to develop assays for all microbial products, to expertise on the handling of sensitive biologicals throughout the process. It will also provide value-adding services, including advisory on water quality and recipe compatibility, on-seed survivability measurement, guidelines for storage, handling and cleaning, and specialized training on proper stewardship of biologicals.

Innovation powerhouse

Innovation is keeping pace with partnerships with Syngenta Seedcare offering a broad portfolio of biological seed treatment solutions, comprising the EPIVIO^® range of biostimulants for healthy crop establishment and ATUVA^® to promote nutrient use efficiency for soybean and legume crops, in addition to NUELLO^® biofertilizers. Conventional seed treatment options continue to advance, hand-in-hand with biological innovation, with two blockbusters including EQUENTO^® and VICTRATO^®.

Insects and soil pests pose significant challenges to farmers, threatening both yields as well as the quality of the harvests by harming the crop as well as opening pathways for disease. Their ability to constantly evolve, coupled with the impact of climate change that has propelled shifts in the insect pressure and spectrum farmers face, have increased the urgency for innovative solutions that protect the farmers ability to grow productively and sustainably. An estimated 600 species of insects are already deemed resistant to at least one insecticide.

EQUENTO^®, based on Syngenta’s cutting-edge PLINAZOLIN^® technology, is applied onto seeds, protecting the crop right from the start of its life. Based on a new mode of action (IRAC Group 30), it breaks the critical rise in insect resistance, while offering precise control of a broad variety of soil pests – including difficult-to-control pests such as the wireworm and the red legged earth mite. The seed treatment can be applied across multiple crops including cereals and canola. Safe for both the seed and plant, it is highly effective at very low dose rates and is not easily soluble or mobile in soil, providing precise and effective pest control in the area immediately surrounding a plant’s roots and ensures healthier roots that contribute to better soil health and biodiversity. This innovative seed treatment also offers farmers greater flexibility in farming decisions – ranging from application timings, dose rates to choices of mixtures with other insecticides and fungicides. It features exceptional target specificity, which enables farmers to precisely tailor their dose rates to meet particular pest challenges.

Plant parasitic nematodes are microorganisms that feed on a plant’s roots and impact the plant’s ability to absorb nutrients. They are present in almost all agricultural soils, attacking crops and opening a path to further fungal infection. They can have a devastating impact, with yield losses of up to 12% globally per year, equating to an estimated loss of $150 billion every year for farmers. VICTRATO^® is a novel technology with a powerful combination of nematode and disease control for farmers looking to increase the quality and yield of their crops and support the long-term health of their soil. VICTRATO^® contains TYMIRIUM^® technology, which provides long-lasting protection against all plant parasitic nematodes and key fungal diseases across major crops, including soybeans, corn, cereals, cotton, and rice. VICTRATO^® enables plants to optimize water and nutrient uptake while increasing stress tolerance and yield, delivering a greater return on investment for the farmer. VICTRATO^® is also partially translocated to the aerial part of the plant. As a result, key above-ground pathogens are controlled or suppressed, providing additional protection and flexibility in subsequent foliar spray programs. By protecting the roots, VICTRATO^® plays a critical part in enabling no-tillage and conservation-tillage practices and helps preserve biodiversity by not harming beneficial insects, pollinators and microflora. This favorable sustainability profile provides farmers with the option to replace older technologies.

″We are excited to add EQUENTO^® and VICTRATO^® to our broad portfolio,″ Mr Brown said. ″We are taking our efforts to combat nematodes to the next level. VICTRATO^® has an easy-to-use formulation that provides consistent performance without adverse effects to crop or soil health, giving farmers the freedom to maximize their yields without having to compromise on sustainability.″

Syngenta launches world’s first commercial digital tool to detect harmful nematodes through satellite images

One of the biggest challenges farmers face in managing crop-damaging nematodes is the invisible nature of the problem. Syngenta Seedcare has unique screening capabilities and innovative mapping systems that detect the presence of nematodes in key markets, including Brazil (which accounts for 35 percent of global soybean production), the US, China and throughout APAC. This work, in combination with VICTRATO^®, helps farmers identify and address nematode problems to deliver productivity improvements. 

The new digital tool, the first commercial digital diagnosis and mapping solution for harmful nematode pests, marks a breakthrough in the management of this devastating pest and is a product of Syngenta’s focus on delivering an expanding portfolio of digital and precision agricultural solutions to farmers worldwide. It uses a unique, proprietary algorithm to analyze images of fields obtained by satellites, allowing it to identify areas of high infestations of plant-parasitic nematodes in crops and estimate potential losses caused by these microscopic parasites. Using the tool, farmers can make quick adjustments to their field management practices, helping them avoid losses in yield, as well as optimizing the use of inputs, improving the sustainability of their farms. In Brazil alone, plant-parasitic nematodes cause estimated losses in soybean production amounting to more than USD 5.4 billion a year. 

Syngenta’s advances in biologicals and seed treatment solutions reflect a wider commitment to transforming agriculture through collaboration and customer-centric innovation. By partnering with industry leaders like Bioceres, Unium Bioscience, and Aphea.Bio, Syngenta brings cutting-edge biological solutions to farmers worldwide. These partnerships develop sustainable solutions that improve crop yields, enhance soil health and nutrient use efficiency, and reduce environmental impact.

With groundbreaking technologies like NUELLO^® iN and VICTRATO^®, along with digital tools for precise product application, Syngenta empowers farmers to meet the challenges of modern agriculture. Through these collaborative efforts and a focus on customer success, Syngenta Seedcare contributes to advancing agricultural practices and fostering a future where farming is both productive and environmentally responsible.

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This story was initially published in the 2024 Seed Treatment Special. Download the magazine to read more stories.

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