- Chris Harrold, YaraVita Product Manager, explains why biostimulants are going to play a key part in healthy, profitable, and sustainable crop production
Improving tolerance to environmental stresses is crucial, as they can limit the productivity of agricultural crops.
Growers can get best results by considering biostimulants as part of an integrated crop programme rather than seeing them as a standalone solution.
Growers around the world are under pressure to produce more food for a growing population. Some estimates say that 50% more food will be needed by the middle of this century. At the same time, they’re being asked to do this sustainably.
This means focusing more on nutrient use efficiency as well as maintaining productivity in the face of increasingly extreme weather conditions. During a recent webinar series, Chris Harrold, YaraVita Product Manager, explained why biostimulants are going to play a key part in healthy, profitable, and sustainable crop production.
“Biostimulants are substances or microorganisms that are applied to seeds, plants, or the soil zone surrounding the roots,” says Chris. “When applied, they can support a plant’s natural processes thereby improving nutrient uptake or use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, crop quality and yield.”
Improving tolerance to environmental stresses is crucial, as they can limit the productivity of agricultural crops. There are two types of environmental stresses on crops, abiotic and biotic stress. Abiotic stresses include things like excess rainfall, drought, and extremes in temperature; all of which cause the loss of crop potential worldwide. Biotic stresses are issues caused by diseases and pests. By helping crops reach their genetic potential and improving nutrient uptake, biostimulants mitigate the effects of these stresses.
“Biostimulants bring specific benefits,” says Chris. “As well as improving tolerance to abiotic stress, they help with nutrient use efficiency and that’s very important because as an industry, there’s pressure on us to reduce our carbon footprint. Increasing nutrient use efficiency helps with that as does improving crop yield and quality. If growers can improve the marketable yield of the crops they are growing, there will be less food waste.”
Over the past five years, Yara has developed a portfolio of biostimulants, which up until now, have been part of the YaraVita foliar nutrition range. Now the products have their own brand identity, YaraAmplix.
“Biostimulants are becoming increasingly important in crop production systems,” says Chris. “The new brand name is inspired by the word ‘amplify,’ by adding a biostimulant to crop nutrition programmes rather than by replacing something else they might be doing, growers can get an amplification of the benefits provided to crops.”
Growers can get best results by considering biostimulants as part of an integrated crop programme rather than seeing them as a standalone solution.
“The best way forward for growers is to combine foliar nutrient products with the biostimulants,” says Chris. “In 95% of cases, we have seen this approach deliver better results than the standalone application of either product.”
Yara’s biostimulants are combined with vitamins and other nutrients that work in synergy to provide benefits to the crop.
One product in the range, BIOTRAC, contains different bioactive components from seaweed extract as well as organic, vitamins, and complementary nutrients designed to promote plant growth, improve flowering, and increase tolerance to abiotic stresses.
A Belgian trial which looked at the impact of applying YaraVita foliar nutrition plus a biostimulant to potatoes was replicated in the UK. Split field trials on potato crops on sites in Yorkshire and Scotland found that two applications of BIOTRAC at 3 litres/hectare produced a 10% yield increase and a marketable yield of 3.5 tonnes respectively.
Development work in France found that applying the product on sugar beet yields could increase yield by 5%. The work was repeated in split field work in Suffolk. Three litres of BIOTRAC per hectare was applied twice at growth stage 16 to 18 and then again at growth stage 19 and like in the French trial, there was a 5% yield increase.
“With the potato trial, we saw the biggest benefits of using biostimulants on unirrigated land,” says Chris. “In the sugar beet trial, crops that had been under stress from herbicide applications responded best to biostimulant applications. This really highlights the benefit of using them; protecting crops from abiotic stress and helping them reach their genetic potential where there are limiting factors.”
Biostimulants are a complex area, and Yara’s recent live webinars are aimed at demystifying what they are, what they do, and how they are formulated and developed.
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