Low-input crop plots show how bio-stimulants help reduce carbon footprints, lower costs and boost yields
Low-input crop plots show how bio-stimulants help reduce carbon footprints, lower costs and boost yields
Cost challenges and the availability of fertiliser and other inputs may be the main concern for growers given the current market volatility, but growing pressure to reduce carbon footprints and meet environmental responsibilities are creating an opportunity to address both challenges with biological options.
“Bio-stimulants are now becoming mainstream inputs, regulated worldwide, and suitable for use in all crops, from cereals to proteins, soft and top fruits to grassland,” explains Richard Phillips, managing director of UK biotechnology company AminoA.
“Moreover, they can provide yield, performance and quality benefits, while helping reduce carbon footprints and overall input spend on expensive agrochemicals.”
Combining environmental benefits with timely applications of biological crop stimulants can also boost profitability, by reducing crop damage or losses.
AminoA has developed a full portfolio of high-quality crop bio-stimulants, helping to reduce crop yield limiting factors, including increasing resistance to stress by cold, heat, drought and agrochemical phytotoxicity.
Cereals 2022
View AminoA’s low-input crop plots at Cereals 2022, demonstrating how bio-stimulants can deliver impressive performance results, while supporting low input farming systems and improving soil microbiology.
Research conducted by the Institute of Horticulture, Warsaw, Poland has demonstrated that soil applications of artificial Nitrogen over 70 kg ha have a negative impact on soil microbiology so the plots (OSR, Triticale and Winter Wheat) on the AminoA stand have been treated with 0, 70 kg ha and 150 kg ha, and will compare performance at these reduced Nitrogen inputs alongside new hybrid bio-stimulant product, AminoA BLAAZT.
Launched in 2021, AminoA BLAAZT reduces the total Nitrogen application needed on crops.
“By harnessing the amine form of Nitrogen, normally only produced and found in the plant itself, AminoA BLAAZT helps improve yield and quality in all crops,” explains Mr Phillips.
“Not only providing effective Nitrogen nutrition, it also reduces the risk of environmental pollution from the run-off of easily leached chemical fertilisers,” he adds.
Formulated to mix with most agrochemicals, improving their efficiency, applying BLAAZT can result in reduced field operations, while significant amounts of the crop’s nutritional requirements can be delivered simultaneously.
Organic systems
AminoA will also be demonstrating its range of OF&G approved bio-stimulants for use in organic systems, including AminoA GRO and the new seed treatment AminoA STAART.
AminoA STAART is a seed treatment containing a complex of 18 L-isomer amino-acids and natural phytohormones that are essential for early growth and development, while increasing the plants resistance to abiotic and biotic stress.
Sustainable Farming Initiatives
With growing pressure to reduce environmental footprints and meet new Sustainable Farming Initiatives, bio-stimulants can play a key role.
“It is about how biological products can help reduce the speed of disease development, as well as boost yields and quality. It is about understanding all elements of the growing process, from soil health to disease resistance to the interaction between biological solutions and agrochemicals,” he adds.
“Properly formulated bio-stimulants can reduce grower costs and improve profits, as well as reducing the environmental impact of agrochemicals,” concludes Mr Phillips.