News Archives - FertiGlobal

Stop Food Waste Day

Fight food waste day with us!

It’s one of our most important resources, yet we waste or lose one-third of it.

When viewed at a global scale, the issue of food waste is not only on a par with the biggest topics of our day, but intricately connected with them: hunger and poverty, climate change, and health and wellbeing.

Most of all, it massively affects agriculture’s bold attempts to be sustainable: wasting food is a waste of the energy and resources involved in growing, harvesting, processing and preparing food for consumption. That’s why FertiGlobal is a staunch supporter of Stop Food Waste Day, held this year on Wednesday, 26 April.

Originally set up in 2017 by Compass Group USA, one of the leading foodservice companies, the day has become a global phenomenon with the intention to educate everyone involved in the food chain – that’s the planet’s entire human population – about the importance of adopting new attitudes and behaviours in our approach to food and the way we use it.

And while much of Stop Food Waste Day’s activities are directed further down the food chain – at chefs and industry leaders and food influencers and consumers – at FertiGlobal we’re determined to play our part in helping our farmers, those who produce our valued food, to get the most from their fields and their crops to help reduce food waste ‘at source’, as it were.

That’s because our products focus on protection. Soil, seed, plant, yield or farmer – our products are designed to offer protection from beginning to end of the crop life cycle, using our Total Crop Management philosophy.

Why is that important? Firstly, it’s the obvious: farmers want to ensure they get the most from their crop. It’s an investment from which they want the best return. Total Crop Management, with its holistic approach, looks at the crop’s entire lifecycle. Realising yield potential is dependent on optimising plant health: a healthy plant delivers not just a healthy yield, but a marketable yield. Because potatoes that are too small, or lettuces that are too ‘leggy’, might not even make it out of the field and certainly won’t get beyond the farm gate. That’s one of the first ‘stations’ on the route to wasting one-third of the food we produce.

Secondly, we recognise that for the produce that does make it beyond the farm gate, farmers can’t control what happens to it. Its fate is in someone else’s hands. But, by exercising their choice in product selection, they can invest beyond the farm gate. Shelf life, resistance to moulds, less susceptibility to damage during handling and processing – all these desirable characteristics are concurrent with a healthy plant that’s had its natural defence processes stimulated by our high quality, bioavailable compounds.

FertiGlobal products are an investment in the food chain. We’re helping to minimise food waste and, in so doing, bring about the more sustainable, more profitable and more productive approach to agriculture that will help alleviate those interconnected topics previously highlighted.

What can you do to raise awareness of food waste? What attitudes and behaviours can you change, either in yourself or in others? To find out more, and access all the resources and more inspiration, go to the Stop Food Waste Day website.

Fight Food Waste with us!

FertiGlobal’s difference

Ginger: the spicy cultigen

Ginger: what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this fragrant spice? One of the oldest spices known to man and used in different ways throughout the world, your ginger ‘preference’ – a drink, a cooked dish, baked goods, a snack, perhaps a medicine – will give a good indication of where in the world you come from.

Ginger’s been cultivated by humans for so long that, like staple crops such as wheat and maize, it’s become what’s known as a ‘cultigen’: a plant that’s been bred and domesticated into a form that doesn’t exist in the wild. And while ginger is still a relatively minor crop – annual production tops out at about 4.3 million tonnes – it’s considerably more plentiful than pepper, at around 750,000 tonnes, often said to be the world’s most popular spice.

What’s FertiGlobal’s interest in it? Well, most of the ginger grown in the world today – around 4.3 million tonnes – is grown in India. We’ve talked before about our fascination with this important agricultural country. Ginger’s just one of the many crops that contributes to India’s agricultural diversity and, with many of India’s farmers moving beyond the traditional ‘homestead’ farming practices, there’s a real appetite for adopting new and more productive practices.

Overhauling ginger’s agronomy is one such example. But we also like to demonstrate how, through our growing global network of partners and distributors, FertiGlobal is developing solutions and sharing knowledge about all crops, not just the half dozen or so that usually attract most of the attention.

Ginger’s also a great example of our total crop management approach: how we think about every crop throughout its lifecycle. With a preference for a warm and humid climate, ginger can be particularly susceptible to fungal diseases. But, as we know, a plant that has satisfied its nutritional requirements will be better placed to stimulate its own natural defence processes: in other words, a healthy plant will stay healthy.

For example, current agronomic practices in India often encourage use of toxic chemicals whose use in the EU is now banned, such as mancozeb; severely restricted, such as malathion; or which have never been licensed, such as the antibiotic streptocycline. While little of India’s ginger production ends up on the world market – despite being the largest producer, it’s only the seventh-largest exporter – if India is to realise its ambition to compete in agricultural markets worldwide, its farmers must abstain from using such outdated crop protection solutions.

That’s why, in conjunction with SCL Commercial India, we undertook trials last year to examine the effectiveness of Dinamico+Nixi on ginger. Good leaf growth, strong vigour, healthy leaves and improved productivity were the results – and all without using dangerous chemicals that pose risks to farmers, consumers and the soil itself.

It’s another great example of the FertiGlobal difference.

World Water Day

When small steps become big steps

Any idea which industry is the world’s biggest user of fresh water?

No prize for guessing correctly that it’s agriculture. Whether we’re using it for cultivating crops, growing fresh fruit or raising livestock, our global agricultural industry consumes more than 70% of the world’s fresh water.

Growing food is a necessity, of course. But agriculture is competing for that resource – not least with the two billion people worldwide who don’t have access to fresh water supplies themselves.

This ‘water crisis’ lies behind the UN’s World Water Day initiative, held annually on 22 March. As the UN says, ‘dysfunction’ in the water cycle undermines progress on all major global issues, not just hunger and health but also gender equality, jobs, education, industry, natural disasters and preserving peace.

At FertiGlobal, we talk a lot about the importance of sustainability in agriculture: it’s one of the guiding principles that inspires our business. Yet we can’t pick and choose our approach to sustainability: agriculture relies on many natural resources. We can’t view it in isolation.

Water use, and availability, is a good example: Clean Water and Sanitation is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6. As we’ve said before, FertiGlobal can’t solve these problems alone, but what we can do is to help farmers be at the centre of any process of change that involves natural resources. Agriculture’s use of water can be improved. We’re committed to helping farmers realise that improvement in resource use, and that is why we’re proud to support World Water Day.

Our own initiatives

We need to help our farmer customers face the challenges of modern agriculture. It’s why we’ve chosen the route of bioactives and advanced crop nutrition solutions.

We know that a healthy plant is a productive plant. So our products often focus on boosting the plant’s own defence systems. A healthy crop in the field allows farmers to reduce the use of chemicals, such as fungicides.

A healthy plant, with a well-functioning defence and immune system, also improves crop resilience. The UN recognises the importance of crop resilience for reducing water use: climate change will likely lead to reduced rainfall, shortened rain-fed growing seasons, and higher temperatures. Unchecked, all have the potential to cause an increase in the agricultural demand for water – but if, thanks to the use of bio-actives and other crop care products, we can improve crop resilience, then we may be able to allay that extra call on our precious water resources.

Technique also plays a part. Modern fertigation systems – in which many of our products are designed to be used – can help farmers make more efficient use of water, while improving crop yield and productivity.

Theory into practice

For example, let’s look at the results of a trial in maize, conducted by our R&D team to assess the effectiveness of one of our Foliflo Technology products, Rumis. This new generation fertiliser has been designed to support plant growth, particularly at times of external stress – such as when seedlings are transplanted, or when subject to less-than-prime water availability.

Containing the micronutrients boron and zinc, as well as biostimulant compounds derived from Ecklonia maxima, a variety of seaweed, Rumis is ideal for fertigation use (although we’ve also successfully used it in drone applications, too!). In the trial, Rumis’ effect on root development was clear, with:

faster growth
more biomass production, especially with fertigation application
improvement in all root parameters – weight, length, volume and surface

How can what appears to be a relatively small improvement – some better roots in maize – have any connection with World Water Day?

Two-fold: first, a more robust root system is a healthier root system. That’s beneficial in any crop. Healthier root systems mean healthier crops; healthier root systems mean more resilient crops during times of stress, such as drought. Healthy root systems mean crops can continue growing when soil moisture is less than optimal, reducing the need for artificial irrigation.

Second, sustainable agriculture is all about small steps and small improvements. But when there are nearly 600 million farms in the world, small steps suddenly become big steps. And if all of us are making those small steps, together we achieve a lot.

And that’s our objective at FertiGlobal: helping our customers be the change they wish to see in the world.

four pillars of FertiGlobal

The FertiGlobal difference – part 4

Over the last three blogs in this mini-series, we’ve been explaining the FertiGlobal Difference – why we, and our innovative range of bioactivating and crop nutrition solutions, are a unique offering for farmers keen to pursue a modern, progressive and sustainable farming approach.

We’ve covered the Commercial aspects – the value of our team, the importance of growth, flexibility and complete assurance; how our approach to Marketing focuses on the significance of Total Crop Management, supported by quality products and the concept of protection; and how our stated commitment to Research & Development is crucial for maintaining innovation and progress.

But then there’s the final, fourth pillar: Understanding. Or it’s perhaps better explained as Context: how we give credibility to the other three pillars.

Tradition

You might know that FertiGlobal is the agricultural business unit of Lardarello Group. We’re one of the oldest players in international chemicals: founded in 1818, borax was one of our first products. We’re always proud of, but never complacent about, what 200 years of history and knowledge contributes to the company’s success.

We were one of the first to recognise the importance of product quality, and the need to prove it through science: a chemical laboratory for quality control has been a feature of the Lardarello site for nearly 130 years.

And while FertiGlobal may be young in comparison to the wider group, we’re here for the long run, to create new traditions and set new trends: in 2023 we’re already celebrating 20 years of trading. And 20 years of valuable experience in providing the world’s farmers with sustainable crop nutrition solutions.

Certifications

FertiGlobal has inherited its parent company’s tough quality standards. Our customers are never in any doubt about our products’ ability to perform as expected. But we don’t believe high-performing crop care products are incompatible with strict environmental commitments. Our entire business is centred on providing all our stakeholders with increasing value in respect of the environment, while continuing to operate under the highest quality standards.

It’s a vision that’s implemented daily, across the whole company, through an integrated Quality, Health, Environment and Safety system.

Awards

Throughout this blog series, we’ve talked a lot about our belief in our vision, our products and our approach to sustainable agriculture. But there’s nothing like having those beliefs confirmed and recognised. So we’re delighted that the dedication and professionalism of the whole FertiGlobal team has seen the company receive an award from the LIFE Programme of the European Union for the development and commercialisation of our EnNuVi® Technology.

We’ve always believed that this innovative biostimulant solution has the potential to help farmers reduce the environmental impact of their crop-growing activities, without compromising their ability to produce quality food, more efficiently. To have EnNuVi recognised in this way is a satisfying endorsement, and we’re thrilled that a FertiGlobal technology has been singled out by the European Union as a key element in the bloc’s Farm to Fork strategy: one of many that we hope will truly help farmers to produce more from less.

That concludes our series on the Four Pillars. We hope it’s given you a better, deeper understanding of the commitment and beliefs that are suffused through every FertiGlobal product.

four pillars of FertiGlobal

The FertiGlobal difference – part 3

What makes FertiGlobal different? It’s time we turned to the third instalment in our series, and this time we put our research and development capabilities under the microscope.

We talk a lot about R&D at FertiGlobal. But that’s because we’re not just a company with a focus on R&D – instead, it’s our whole raison d’etre. The entire FertiGlobal concept – the appropriate application of technology to bring about measurable changes in farm practices that benefit people and planet – relies on exemplary R&D.

Let’s look at what’s involved in the third pillar of FertiGlobal.

It’s what makes us tick

It’s a cliché to say it, but we can’t deny it: agriculture faces many challenges. For an industry that exists in some shape or form in every country of the world, it’s not surprising that some of those challenges will be specific to regions or individual nations. That said, the industry can’t shy away from the challenges that present at a global level.

And it’s these that motivate everyone at FertiGlobal. It would be arrogant to consider that we could solve them alone, but we’re determined to play our part: everybody at FertiGlobal is committed to the development of new technologies that can be applied in pursuit of those challenges.

Our advanced biostimulant and crop nutrition solutions are the result of in-depth studies carried out by an international team of scientists employed by FertiGlobal. We’ve invested huge sums in building and equipping a modern crop research centre here in Tuscany, with well-resourced laboratories developing proven crop solutions that can be produced at scale, at quality, in our dedicated production plants.

At every step of the way, development to distribution, our dedication to quality control plays out for the constant reassurance of our customers.

Inspiration drives innovation

At FertiGlobal, we think – and then we do. The inspiration gives rise to the innovation. In practical terms, that means creating an environment that can empower our teams to continue the flow of new ideas and fresh solutions that keeps FertiGlobal’s customers productive and competitive. Yes, we need innovative methods of combining plant nutrients and biostimulants, but they must be compatible with a sustainable, resource-use efficient form of agriculture.

Our innovations are especially focused on crop enhancement: nutritional and bioactivating approaches that improve plants’ physiological functions and strengthen their innate defence and immune systems to counter stress, whether biotic or abiotic.

Ability AND sustainability

Our ability to continue freely producing food – or feed, fibre and fuel – needn’t be compromised by the pursuit of sustainable farming.

But in a world where the impact of climate change is becoming more and more tangible, and the fragility and dysfunction of our food systems becomes more apparent, there’s never been a better time to rethink agriculture: let’s reimagine it by reducing its environmental impact, downsizing our water footprint, and slashing our greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s our vision. How we get there is why we exist: new bioactivating and crop nutrition solutions that can improve crop resilience and raise yields and productivity.

In the final part of our Four Pillars blog, we’ll turn to Understanding. Intrigued? You’ll have to wait.

International days

World Pulse Day

World pulses day by FertiGlobal

The most widely grown crops in the world? Corn, wheat and rice. The most important crops for a sustainable, future agriculture? Pulses might present a different story…

Today’s February 10, officially designated as World Pulses Day. Established in 2018 by the United Nations, the commemoration of the pulse recognises the importance attached to this vital family of food crops.

What is a pulse?

Leguminous crops that are harvested solely for their dry seed. Beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas are the most well-known examples of pulses. In many diets around the world, particularly where traditional forms of agriculture are still practised, the pulse is an essential crop.

Those dried seeds are packed with nutrients and have a high protein content. In regions where meat and dairy products are less common, pulses are often the main source of protein and can make up as much as 75% of the average diet. Once dried, they will keep for months or even years, losing none or little of their powerful nutritional value adding to their appeal.

Why does the UN celebrate them?

Aside from the nutritional benefits of pulses, helping people to maintain healthy, diversified diets, pulses have begun to attract attention for their role in sustainable agriculture, food security and climate change mitigation.

As the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) explains, pulses increase the resilience of farming systems. Take their water footprint: per unit of protein, pulses need only two-thirds the amount of water as cereals, for example.

But there’s more to it than just water and better drought tolerance, vital though these will be in a rapidly changing climate. Pulses also have an important role to play in a robust, sustainable agricultural system. They are the only crop group with the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, dramatically reducing the amounts of synthetic fertilisers needed for high yields, and improving soil fertility and farmland productivity for following crops.

FertiGlobal: supporting pulse crops worldwide

At FertiGlobal, we too recognise the importance of the pulse in helping farmers create more resilient, more sustainable farming systems.

With their impressive nitrogen-fixing abilities, farmers are increasingly using pulse crops such as the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in combination with other crops, a technique known as intercropping – to improve yields and increase soil health and biodiversity.

For the common bean and other pulses, including soybeans, FertiGlobal’s unique Crop Management Programs come into play. Through every growing stage, our technologies such as FOLIFLO and FOLISTIM, provide growers with reliable, effective plant nutrition and bioactivating solutions that strengthen the crop and increase productivity.

On World Pulses Day, here’s to the pulse!

four pillars of FertiGlobal

The FertiGlobal difference – part 2

In the second instalment of our series looking at ‘what makes FertiGlobal different’, we turn to the next of the ‘four pillars of FertiGlobal’ – how we keep our distributors informed and our growers satisfied, through good marketing practice of our innovative agricultural and crop management solutions.

It’s not enough merely to manufacture a product, albeit one with exemplary technical credibility and valuable trials evidence. It also needs to be understood – to have a place, to be supported with knowledge, to be given a role. Bringing all these factors together is FertiGlobal’s application of marketing, and how we use it to engage with those in our value chain: our own technical team, our distributors and in-country representatives, and our farmers around the world.

It’s all about quality

At FertiGlobal, we’ve never shied away from highlighting the importance of product quality. We manufacture all our products – the high quality biostimulants and crop nutrition solutions – at our headquarters in Italy, observing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and following strict quality control protocols.

Our products focus on protection

Whether that’s protection of soil, seed, plant, yield or farmer, this is a crucial aspect common to every FertiGlobal product. From protecting the soil before sowing or transplanting, and after harvesting; to protecting the seed, and then the plant, in every growth stage, to shield it against abiotic and biotic stresses; and to protecting the farmer’s investment in the soil, in fertiliser, in seeds, in crop – our products offer protection from beginning to end of a crop’s lifecycle and throughout our customers’ farming businesses.

Total Crop Management…

Our approach is holistic. It’s what helps make FertiGlobal different, and what distinguishes us from others in the global agricultural, crop protection and crop nutrition market. Too many players focus their time on developing specific solutions for specific problems. It’s an approach that demands time, input, effort and cost for the farmer. Moving away from this ‘silo’ approach was our objective in developing our ‘crop management’ approach. This takes into account the entire lifecycle of plants, crops and crop stages – and the essential underlying requirement that optimising a crop’s yield potential is totally dependent on optimum plant health. FertiGlobal’s innovative, breakthrough technologies deploy the best, high quality, bioavailable compounds to stimulate the natural defence processes of the plant. By prioritising plant health, we can often avoid many of the situations that allow specific problems to develop, and thus remove the need for individual, specific solutions.

…thanks to top technology

Our breakthrough technologies are about more than just enabling holistic plant health. They also allow better environmental health, improving farm biodiversity by allowing farmers to progressively reduce their use of agrochemicals such as fungicides. It’s our research-led philosophy that allows us to generate and develop research-led technologies that can bring about a more sustainable, more profitable, approach to agriculture.

And it’s that application of Technology that we’ll look at in more detail in part three of our blog examining the pillars of FertiGlobal.

General information

2022: what a year!

“What a year it was!”

That’s the view of Sebastian Vera, CEO of the Larderello Group, the parent company of FertiGlobal, who says 2022 has been an ‘amazing journey’.

“2023 will be a further vindication that we’ve set the right course,” he stresses. “It’s testament to the quality of our offering – our belief in a more sustainable agriculture, our focus on protection not just of crops but also soil, health, profit, environment – that despite challenging market conditions, FertiGlobal demonstrated significant growth in sales revenue during 2022.

“We know how farmers are facing their own challenges, such as energy costs, availability and price of raw materials, market uncertainties, but I believe we’re in a position to help them adapt to this new situation.”

Sebastian says the success of FertiGlobal comes down to two main factors: understanding the customer’s needs and providing them with a unique offering of both innovative technologies and technical support.

“As a global company, operating in multiple markets and working with a diverse customer base, there’s no single route to success,” he stresses. “But our sales team, wherever in the world they’re based, has worked hard to embrace their markets and align themselves with their customers.

“So whether we’re in Italy or India, Brazil or the Philippines, we’ve a strong local presence that can adapt to local conditions. With that flexibility to service the day-to-day business – the provision of technical and commercial support to customers – comes creativity in developing our long-term strategy.”

Sebastian also highlights the importance of FertiGlobal’s R&D and technical development divisions. “They play a vital role in developing our long-term strategy, while offering valuable support to the sales teams.

“The feedback received from around the world is instrumental in opening up opportunities to grow the business in our key technologies EnNuVi, Foliflo and Folistim,” says Sebastian.

“We believe these technologies, and those in our development pipeline, lie at the core of our strategy for sustainable growth.

“They’re also essential if we’re to continue to position ourselves as a global source of innovation for sustainable agriculture.

“That’s why the outlook for 2023 is so exciting,” Sebastian concludes.

It’s Christmas time!

Season greetings by FertiGlobal

It’s time to wish all colleagues and partners a Merry Christmas and a great New Year 2023!

Health, Joy and Success for everybody.

FertiGlobal season greetings

Kisan Diwas celebration

In India, farmers matter

In India today, farmers – and the entire nation – celebrate Kisan Diwas, Farmers’ Day. We join them!

With agriculture accounting for nearly two-thirds of the country’s GDP, farming is firmly woven into Indian society too. Recognised as the driving force of the economy – albeit challenged by newer industries, such as tech – Kisan Diwas honours the Indian farmers who have done so much to sustain the country’s development.

Since the turn of the 21^st century, India’s agricultural output has grown more than 400%, from $101bn to $532bn, according to the World Bank. Today, India is among the top three producers of many globally traded crops, such as wheat, cotton, rice, vegetables and potatoes, while its position as the world’s number one milk producer has become known as the White Revolution (paying homage to the Green Revolution) for its success in linking millions of tiny dairy producers through a nationwide system of co-operatives.

As Claus Brakemeier, our Global Business Development Manager, found out during his recent visit to India, there’s a palpable enthusiasm in Indian agriculture to move things forward and modernise the industry. It’s a move firmly supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose predecessor – the fifth Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh – Kisan Diwas sets out to honour.

Singh was himself a farmer before entering politics; he never forgot his humble origins in Uttar Pradesh and while his tenure in the top job was short, his influence was felt in Indian agri-politics over many years, from pre-independence until he stepped down in 1980.

At FertiGlobal, we’re proud to be present in India, thanks to the hardworking efforts of SCL Commercial and its Country Manager Alam Tanveer and his team. As India’s farmers look to the future, keen to adopt innovative new products that improve both productivity and India’s agricultural sustainability, we’re working with Alam to bring research-based technologies to a wider audience.

Please join us today in thanking Indian farmers for their hard work, dedication and commitment – and sending a very special message of ‘Happy Kisan Diwas’ to Alam and his colleagues.

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News Archives - FertiGlobal

Fight food waste day with us

Stop Food Waste Day

Fight food waste day with us!

Ginger: the spicy cultigen

FertiGlobal’s difference

Ginger: the spicy cultigen

When small steps become big steps

World Water Day

When small steps become big steps

The FertiGlobal difference 4

four pillars of FertiGlobal

The FertiGlobal difference – part 4

The FertiGlobal difference 3

four pillars of FertiGlobal

The FertiGlobal difference – part 3

World Pulse Day

International days

World Pulse Day

The FertiGlobal difference 2

four pillars of FertiGlobal

The FertiGlobal difference – part 2

2022: what a year!

General information

2022: what a year!

Season greetings by FertiGlobal

It’s Christmas time!

Season greetings by FertiGlobal

In India, farmers matter

Kisan Diwas celebration

In India, farmers matter