#EnNuVi Archives - FertiGlobal

Anticipation of IPNC 2025

Bean and done it

For a scientist, there are few things more satisfying than designing, conducting and completing an experiment that confirms a hypothesis.

As you’d expect, it’s this concept that gets FertiGlobal’s crop scientists out of bed every morning: their commitment to better understand a crop’s nutritional needs. Why? Because by meeting those needs, we can influence everything from growth to yield to plant health, which can in turn give growers what they seek: better crops, better soils, better food and better farming.

But every scientist will also tell you that there IS one thing better. And that is when another scientist takes such an interest in your work that they conduct their own scientific studies – and uncover results that corroborate, independently, all your hard work.

Which is why we’re eagerly anticipating this month’s International Plant Nutrition Colloquium, hosted by the Portuguese city of Porto between 22-25 July. This year’s event centres on Cultivating Resilience: Plant Nutrition for Food, Feed, and Health.

Here, Professor Carlos Ribeiro Rodrigues, of the Goiano Federal Institute at Rio Verde in Brazil, will present a set of studies about FertiGlobal’s EnNuVi Technology-based products – a perfect alignment with the 2025 theme.

Why EnNuVi?

EnNuVi is what we would probably describe as FertiGlobal’s flagship technology. An acronym of Enhance, Nurture, Vitalize, EnNuVi is a bioactivating Technology that has a unique ability to trigger and control plants’ defence and resistance systems.

EnNuVi Technology based products regulate and influence the genes in the plant, helping to protect it from stress events. Its molecule of essential plant nutrients, active polyphenols and selected natural ingredients helps the crop to grow, healthy and strong, to reach its full yield potential.

What most excites us– and many others – about EnNuVi Technology-based products is how they can boost a crop’s natural defence systems. In turn, this can significantly reduce pesticide use. And thus it meets the central tenets of FertiGlobal’s philosophy: reducing farming’s impact on the environment, and ensuring farmers can deliver high-yielding, high-quality output without requiring excessive resource use (EnNuVi also reduces crops’ water consumption).

It was these features that caught the attention of Professor Rodrigues. In conjunction with one of his students, Humberto Pistore Eleuterio, he organised a study of Mantus, one of our most popular EnNuVi-based products. And it’s these results – together with a parallel study into Semia, another product in the EnNuVi portfolio – that will be presented at IPNC next month.

For the study, Rodrigues and Eleuterio chose the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). It’s a key source of protein, vitamins and minerals; in many countries around the world it’s a staple crop and a primary foodstuff.

Despite this, the common bean’s productivity falls short of expectation. To grow better crops, more reliably, more efficiently and in greater quantities, growers – many of them small-scale farmers – must balance agronomic efficiency and resource optimisation. And then there’s the environmental sustainability: current agronomic practice relies on plant growth regulators and fungicides.

The study looked at how Mantus, which contains copper compounds alongside plant polyphenols, and Semia (zinc and polyphenols), might affect photochemical efficacy, photosynthesis, yield and other metrics. EnNuVi products were compared against products used in conventional farmer practice.

We’re not going to steal the team’s thunder by revealing the results here; for those, you’ll have to wait until we share the full information in next month’s blog.

But they did make our own scientists very satisfied…

Look out for the rest of the story next month. If you’re attending IPNC, look out for the poster – it will be presented on Day 3, July 25.

Mexico tour

Down Mexico Way

Mexico. You’re probably thinking about the unique food, characterful tequilas and the distinctive tunes of the Mariachi.

But while FertiGlobal’s Josefina Mackern enjoyed all these Mexican delights during her distributor support visit, it was the country’s diverse and extensive agriculture that brought her there.

As FertiGlobal’s head of technical development for the LATAM region, Josefina says it’s vital to get out in the country and – in typical FertiGlobal fashion – have ‘boots on the ground’.

“Mexico is a nation with enormous agricultural potential,” Josefina says. “Agriculture is an important economic sector for the country, and many farmers display a strong eagerness to adopt new technologies.

“For FertiGlobal, that attitude and interest make it an exciting market for innovation and growth.”

There’s great diversity in Mexican agriculture. Crops are the most important sector, contributing around half of all agricultural output. Corn, sugar cane, wheat, barley, tomatoes, bananas, citrus, mangoes, soft fruits, and coffee are among the most widely grown crops, annual outputs being sufficient to make it a top five or top ten producer for many categories.

For tomatoes and avocados, however, Mexico ranks as the world’s largest exporter. Next time you’re buying avocados at the grocery store or supermarket, check out where they were grown. There’s a good chance they’ll have been grown in Mexico.

Josefina’s two-week stay in Mexico first saw her supporting Koprimo, FertiGlobal’s longest-standing client in Mexico. Active across multiple sectors in the Mexican economy, from agriculture to automotive, and construction to mining, the company’s built an enviable reputation over its 45-year history – primarily for its socially responsible outlook.

“It’s no surprise that we saw them as an ideal partner for Mexico,” explains Josefina. “They recognise the agricultural industry’s responsibility to humans and the environment. FertiGlobal’s philosophy, as encompassed by our Four Pillars and the constant pursuit of sustainable farming, is a perfect match.”

Top of the list was attending Expo Agroalimentaria Guanajuato, a four-day show attracting professionals in the agricultural formulation and crop protection industries. It was a marvellous opportunity to engage with a wide cross-section of Mexican agriculture, meeting potential clients and discussing how FertiGlobal’s innovative technologies can provide the solution to many of their most intractable challenges.

“It’s the second time we’ve participated in the Expo,” notes Josefina, “and it really gives the most valuable, accessible way of connecting with key industry players, while spending time with the knowledgeable and enthusiastic Koprimo team – Héctor Ginez, Víctor Hugo Rodulfo, and Julio César Simiano.”

But valuable though these events are, there’s nothing like getting out in the field to see how FertiGlobal products are performing on-farm. Hand-in-hand with this is the ever-important need to see how growers respond to the FertiGlobal philosophy, and providing technical and commercial support to our distributors.

All this Josefina found with a trip to the San Quintín Valley. Located in Baja California, some 300km south of Tijuana, this is an area renowned for intensive agricultural production, growing everything from tomatoes, berries and cotton to cereals and vegetables.

But intensive farming has taken its inevitable toll – growers report depleted soils, and it’s recognised as an area on the ‘front line’ of climate change: altered rainfall patterns have increased the need for irrigation, leading to worries about groundwater depletion and desertification.

“Farmers are looking for products that can help them mitigate the effects of climate change on their crops, such as abiotic stress, while vitalizing plants with healthier and stronger growth, fighting disease without the need for harsh agrochemicals,” explains Josefina.

Mastranto is FertiGlobal’s new distributor for the northwest coast in Mexico. They sell to farmers through La Yunta stores; Josefina spent her first day in San Quintín in a technical training session.

“Mastranto received their first FertiGlobal products in December 2024, so we were very keen to prepare the team to understand their technical performance, how to deploy products to allow farmers to best solve their challenges, and to answer as many questions as possible.”

EnNuVi Technology has generated the most interest with Mastranto – Mantus, Laran and Lasa in particular – with FOLIFLO and FOLIMAC alongside, so Josefina’s next step was to see how these would go into action with producers. Tomatoes and strawberries are the prime targets for Mastranto with these products.

“Of course, no visit to Mexico would be complete without a study of the nation’s vineyards – it’s great that so many of our products have strong use cases in grapes and vines,” Josefina points out.

“The San Quíntin Valley is one of Mexico’s leading wine regions,” she says, “so it’s very exciting that we have producers, such as Dubucano and La Cetto, who look at FertiGlobal’s products and see solutions that could be right for them.”

Josefina says she’s looking forward to growing FertiGlobal in Mexico with help from such supportive and enthusiastic distributors.

“We’re poised to develop and explore a vast sea of opportunities in this expansive country. I feel confident about how the FertiGlobal philosophy of Total Crop Management is understood and appreciated here, and excited by its potential with such a vibrant, significant agricultural producer.”

Chilli focus

The Heat Is On – for EnNuVi and FOLISTIM

Do you embrace the chilli pepper, luxuriating in the heat it brings to your favourite dishes, and swapping anecdotes about the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X? Or would you rather enjoy the mild kick of the Serrano, steering clear of anything with a heftier punch?

If you’re of the former persuasion, then it’s likely you’ll also seek out the delights of dried chillis, whether whole or as chilli powder. And there’s a strong likelihood that your favourite spice was grown by one of India’s 100 million farmers.

Yes, we’re back in India again. It’s a country in which FertiGlobal has great interest, as regular blog readers will know from previous writings about ginger, apples, and cardamom.

India isn’t shy with its agricultural production, ranking at or near the top across a range of common crops. So perhaps it’s no surprise, given the country’s culinary reputation, to discover that India is the world’s biggest producer of dried chillis and peppers, accounting for about 40% of global production. Not just a producer, either: it’s also the biggest consumer and exporter.

Most of that production is concentrated in the state of Andhra Pradesh, on the country’s east coast. According to official data, chilli cultivation here utilises nearly 200,000 hectares, producing around 1.12m tonnes annually. It’s to that state we headed, with our branch in India SCL Commercial, to explore the potential of the FertiGlobal products Mantus and Semia to help reduce incidence of the most common diseases afflicting the region’s chilli crops.

A transition to Total Crop Management

As India’s farmers commercialise and move beyond their traditional ‘homestead’ farming systems, FertiGlobal believes there’s a strong case for introducing them to new, more productive practices – including the fundamental FertiGlobal principle of Total Crop Management.

Through Total Crop Management, we think about every crop throughout its lifecycle: what it needs, and what will make it thrive, at every stage of growth. So, as appropriate in each crop, that’s from germination to emergence to flowering to ripening to harvest, and so on.

Total Crop Management is primarily about crop nutrition. A plant that has its nutritional requirements fully satisfied will be better placed to stimulate and enact its own natural defence processes.

With Total Crop Management, you get a healthy plant that stays healthy – because it’s well-placed to defend itself against the invading pathogens that cause disease, depress yields and lower quality.

FertiGlobal Technologies

Our Total Crop Management approach is espoused by our Technologies – the families of products that our R&D team has formulated to provide farmers with sustainable solutions.

Each Technology combines plant nutrients, biostimulants and bioactivators to deliver specific benefits through particular mechanisms and modes of action within the plant.

For our chilli trials in India, we focused on our EnNuVi Technology, a patented technology that comprises high analysis formulations with nutrient polyphenolic molecules (NPM). NPMs play a prime role in activating the plant’s natural defences, by helping to manage the right balance between the production of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). ROS are a natural by-product of photosynthesis, but can be damaging if levels become too high.

All EnNuVi Technology products work to ENhance the plant’s performance against stress, by NUrturing with NPMs and VItalising the crop for stronger, healthier growth.

Such is the innovation encapsulated within EnNuVi that it has been recognised within the European Union’s LIFE programme for its objective of reducing the environmental impact of agricultural practices, without compromising the need for food and ever-higher yields.

EnNuVi in chillis

The village of Lingala, a farming community in the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh, was the backdrop for our trials. Here, we sought to evaluate the performance of two EnNuVi products – MANTUS and SEMIA – on controlling anthracnose, dieback, powdery mildew and wilt diseases.

Nine farms within Lingala were involved in the trials. In all cases, the FertiGlobal products were compared against treatments made using standard farmer practices (SP).

Visually, plants treated with the EnNuVi Technology-based products were more upright and greener. In particular, farmers commented on the added ‘shine’ that the products seemed to impart to the fruits: this was unusually noticeable, and something they attributed to the improved health status of the crop.

Of course, we’re never happy with subjectivity alone. Yet the farmers’ optimism about their healthier crops wasn’t misplaced: what we saw, amongst all the treatment protocols for MANTUS and SEMIA, was not only an increased number of fruits per plant, but also the lowest number of diseased fruits per plant.

By adding both MANTUS and SEMIA to their treatments – which, in this part of India are commonly made by knapsack sprayers – farmers saw positive returns on investment over SP. Both products showed positive, consistent performance – convincing the Lingala farmers that EnNuVi Technology would be worthwhile.

FOLISTIM in chillis

Like EnNuVi, FOLISTIM is a FertiGlobal Technology designed to fulfil our ambition of Total Crop Management. It’s been developed with a specific goal in mind: promoting a vegetative reset in the crop, after periods of stress. Again, its focus is on good nutrition, by optimising plant nutrients to enhance final fruit quality and maximise its storage potential. FOLISTIM not only relieves abiotic stress but can improve resistance to it too.

With FOLISTIM, we went to the west coast state of Maharashtra. If Andhra Pradesh is known as India’s Chilli Bowl for its high production, then Maharashtra is the Chilli Paradise, producing some of India’s most sought-after chilli varieties such as the Dhani, Jwala, and the famed Bhiwapur.

Here, we looked at the effects of CREO on yield and commercial quality. Formulated around phosphorus, potassium and boron, it’s designed to support crops in their ripening. Of course, there are several factors involved in optimising ripening, so this became quite an extensive trial, measuring a variety of metrics such as flowers per plant and the numbers dropped, fruits per plant and the numbers dropped, plus plant height and eventual fruit yield.

Across every metric, CREO-treated plants performed significantly better than those plants receiving SP. Unsurprisingly, therefore, final yields showed significant increases: up to 20% over SP, with the increase delivering a net revenue benefit of nearly USD100 per ha.

*Sample of the chili harvest and its weight (g) per plant according to the different treatments*

That’s a return on investment of 2.68 – which just goes to show how a Total Crop Management approach not only benefits the plant and the planet, but profitability of the grower too.

For fuller details of these commercial trials in India, do get in touch: we’d say they’re hot!

News from California

Have bees, will travel…

One of the world’s largest managed pollination events has just got underway in California, as the state’s almond orchards burst into flower.

If you’re an almond aficionado – partial to the odd macaroon, a lover of marzipan, or prefer almond milk to the dairy mainstay – it’s almost certain that your pastry, snack or drink was made with Californian almonds.

The world relies on California for its almonds: 80% of global production is concentrated in the Golden State. Stretching from north to south, the 1.3 million acres of almond orchards provide nearly $6 bn for the state’s economy every year.

All that acreage needs reliable pollination: two hives for every acre of orchard, to be precise. Too valuable to leave to chance from wild bee and insect populations, every February beekeepers from across the United States descend on California, bringing with them hives for hire and utilising more than half of the US’s total commercial honeybee population.

Nor do they stay in California. Once they completed pollination of the almond orchards, the same bees begin a pollination circuit that includes the apples of Washington state, Floridian tangerines, and the famed blueberries of North Carolina.

It’s this fanatical focus on getting the most from every almond acre – the surety of pollination, precision irrigation, and more and more effective harvesting, to reduce mechanical losses – that has helped contribute to an incredible growth in productivity since the first orchards were planted in the early 20^th century.

Back then, a grower would be happy to see a little over 200 lbs/acre (225 kg/ha). Today, any one of California’s 7,600 almond growers can expect at least ten times the yield, and as much as twenty times more – 4,000 lbs/acre (4.5 t/ha).

Nevertheless, despite this huge increase in output and land-use efficiency – without the improvement in yield, today’s crop would require 13 million acres of orchard, 13 per cent of the state’s land area – almond cultivation still has its detractors.

That’s why FertiGlobal was delighted to take part in the Almond Board of California’s annual conference. Held in Sacramento in December, Rooted Together looked at how the state’s almond industry is adapting to meet growers’ needs and consumers’ expectations.

From a grower perspective, a stewardship program seeks to encourage them to think longer term when growing trees, while continued investment in research and outreach is designed to further improve productivity while reducing the ‘production footprint’. Meanwhile consumer campaigns seek to increase awareness of almonds’ health benefits while setting the record straight on issues such as water use, on-farm biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.

At FertiGlobal, we’re especially interested in supporting growers to make more informed choices about their approach to key agronomic issues such as nutrient management and pest and disease control. Our ‘bread and butter’ is helping farmers to improve their productivity through increases in yield, better quality crops, and more efficient use of resources. At the same time, we strive to develop unique solutions that observe regulatory parameters and ever more stringent environmental obligations.

It’s this attitude, comprising grower resilience and sustainability with our own use of sound science, that underpins our Total Crop Management philosophy. And it’s one that’s meets the needs of California’s almond growers head-on: using an understanding of plant biochemistry, physiology and nutrition to develop solutions built on a wide-ranging holistic platform.

Not for us the siloed route of looking to solve each individual problem with an individual solution. Instead, we have Technologies like EnNuVi, with its unique bioactivating mechanism that can help trigger and control crops’ defence and stress mitigation mechanisms – helping the plant to help itself, rather than allowing it to reach the stage where chemical intervention becomes necessary.

For FertiGlobal, that’s the real crux of the matter: we’re not advocating for a world without any conventional, chemical crop protection products. Instead, we’re looking to create early, nutrition- and biochemical-based interventions that can reduce, or remove, the NEED for chemical use.

Perhaps it really is as simple as Less is More: less chemical, more sustainable.

News from India

The Queen of Spices

Only vanilla and saffron are more expensive; only cinnamon and black pepper might have a claim to being the oldest spice. But only one spice boasts of being the Queen of Spices, and that’s cardamom.

Recognised for its exceptional taste, flavour and aroma for more than 4,000 years, cardamom rightly takes its crown for its incomparable culinary versatility. The spice is a veritable gem across sweet as well as savoury dishes, its influence spreading to cuisines well beyond its native habitat in India: it’s been popular in Scandinavia ever since the Vikings took it home from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) more than 1,000 years ago, enthusiastically adding it to everything from biscuits and breads to pastries and sausages. Could there be any greater contrast between the humid Indian tropics and a region that stretches into the Arctic Circle?

Only one plant is the true cardamom, Elletaria cardamomum. It’s a member of the Zingiberaceae family – otherwise known as the ginger family – and is in illustrious company: many of the family’s species are recognised as ornamentals, medicinals, or spices, while many also yield the essential oils so prized by the perfume industry. Another member of the ginger family, Amomum, is known as the large cardamom: it’s the source of the black (or brown) pods.

We’ve talked before about ginger, specifically its Indian cultivation and also about FertiGlobal’s specific interests in India. We’re very keen on the ‘boots on the ground’ philosophy: only by talking to farmers, ‘unfiltered’, can we really get a measure for the crop production challenges they face.

And so it was that just a few months ago, we paid another visit to India, this time to the hills of Southern India and specifically the Western Ghats, where cardamom still grows wild. Despite its origins in India, today the country vies with Guatemala for the title of top global producer, and joins other countries such as Indonesia, China and Vietnam to turn out nearly 140,000 tonnes of cardamom annually.

For a crop that’s so highly revered, sought-after and expensive, one might expect its cultivation to be second-to-none. Yet its preference for elevations higher than 600m and shaded forest soils tends to ensure that production remains limited to small plots of land and in the hands of smallholders.

Added to that is its labour-intensive nature. Not only is much of the initial preparation – clearing weeds and sowing seed – carried out by hand, but it may take up to three years before it yields merely a light crop, all the while requiring weeding and transplantations to maintain a healthy stand. Needless to say, even when the crop comes into full production – plantations generally last around 10 years – the crop is gathered, dried and processed by hand.

FertiGlobal, of course, could be described as ‘production practice agnostic’: our attention is not on how many hectares a farmer has, or whether he or she is using the latest technology. Our only focus is on the crop. Total Crop Management. That’s because when it comes to their production practices, a small-scale farmer faces just the same challenges on crop nutrition, crop health and crop stress as his well-hectared counterpart.

What’s more, with a crop like cardamom where the profitable, yield-producing period accounts for only part of a much longer crop lifecycle, it’s even more important that we can help farmers get their crops off to a good start. In any crop, realising its full yield potential requires a good start every time.

In a hot and humid climate like India’s, crops can be particularly susceptible to fungal disease. But many farmers are still encouraged to use chemicals like mancozeb, which is now banned in many of the countries to which the crop is exported. That’s why FertiGlobal’s team is working closely with our Indian branch, SCL Commercial India, to examine the potential of our bioactive technologies like EnNuVi and FOLISTIM, for example.

Both technologies support plant defence systems, preventing many diseases from taking hold in the first place, and helping farmers avoid coming under pressure to use a harsh chemical to cure an outbreak.

We’re looking forward to seeing more results from our work in India. It’s another country where the FertiGlobal difference is bringing real benefit – not just to farmers, but consumers and the environment too.

Tulip market in the Netherlands

National Tulip day

It’s the most widely recognised symbol of the country that grows three billion of them every year. It’s hardly surprising that they dedicate a day to the national flower: in 2025, celebrations fall on January 18.

Grown in the Netherlands since the sixteenth century, the tulip became so popular in the seventeenth century as to spark an outbreak of ‘tulip mania’ – a frenzy of speculative trading that saw the most sought-after bulbs sell for up to ten times the then price of an average house.

Fortunately, such days are past, yet its legacy remains: the tulip industry has become a significant contributor to Dutch horticulture in the 21^st century. Growing the colourful bulb generates around €320m in export sales every year and, together with other flower bulbs such as daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses, gives the Netherlands a 90% dominance of world trade in this sector.

So where better for FertiGlobal to conduct a trial of one its innovative EnNuVi Technology-based products, to assess its performance in tulips and compare it with reference treatments?

Ianus is the newest member of the EnNuVi Technology product portfolio. EnNuVi, remember, an acronym of Enhance, Nurture, Vitalize – is a patented Technology that has a remarkable effect on crops, a unique ability to trigger and control plants’ defence and resistance systems.

EnNuVi Technology-based products are ahead of the curve in terms of the ‘next big thing’ in bioactivation products, for they can actually control the switching on and switching off of the plant’s genes. By activating and deactivating genes involved with stress – whether that’s stress caused by external factors (abiotic stress) that might make the plant more susceptible to diseases, or the stress caused by disease itself – any one of the growing portfolio of EnNuVi products can help significantly reduce conventional pesticide use.

Ianus, in common with its EnNuVi stablemates, combines active polyphenols and selected natural ingredients to help the crop grow, healthy and strong, and to achieve its full yield potential. These polyphenols, when combined withessential nutrients into an active ingredient, namely, a nutrient-polyphenolic-molecule (NPM), bioactivate the plants. In the case of Ianus, the active ingredient manganese-zinc-polyphenolic-molecule is the ‘superpower hero’.

The manganese-zinc-polyphenolic-molecule has an important role in many of the plant’s essential biochemical processes, including photosynthesis, nitrate conversion and hormone signalling. But in a stress context, it has two further roles with big implications.

First, it ‘mops up’ what are known as ‘reactive oxygen species’, or ROS. Found in all living organisms, these are a natural byproduct of oxygen metabolism and are usually ‘used up’ in other processes. Sometimes, however, the balance can become upset – and in excess, ROS can cause significant damage to cells, DNA and proteins.

The other significant role for the manganese-zinc-polyphenolic-molecule is in plant defence: it helps the plant in its constant battles with disease-causing pathogens. A bioactivated plant defence system is like a well-equipped army.

As a result, better growth, development and yield. The manganese-zinc-polyphenolic-molecule protects chlorophyll from degradation so that the plants can keep a high photosynthetic activity even when under stress.

It’s why Ianus is such an exciting product to add to the portfolio of EnNuVi Technology-based products. It’s also why we were thrilled to put it through its paces in a trial organised by CEBECO, a subsidiary of the widely known and well-respected Royal Agrifirm Group, one of the largest agricultural cooperatives in the Netherlands.

Conducted in spring 2024, the trials involved the tulip varieties Jumbo Pink and Red Ranger. In three separate trials, the aim was to examine the effectiveness of Ianus against a variety of other foliar treatments; to evaluate the efficacy of Ianus on bulb production after the second year of cultivation; and to assess the effectiveness of Ianus (and in combination with other EnNuVi Technology-based products) in overall bulb production.

Tulip Trial

Observations showed Ianus could improve crop vitality, achieving by the end of the season the highest index of vigour across 13 different treatments.

Tulip Recultivation

Ianus improved crop vitality, reaching the highest vigour index at the conclusion of the trial.

In measuring the growth factor, i.e. the total weight of the crop/total weight of plantation, Ianus showed better results than any other treatment, indicating how Ianus can increase the crop’s overall productivity.

Our conclusion?

This is a great example of an EnNuVi Technology-based product achieving the overall FertiGlobal objective: reassuring growers that active biological products (keyword: bioactivation) can deliver as good, if not better, results than conventional treatments.

It’s one step at a time in our mission to help farmers produce better crops by using fewer harsh chemicals. And a great demonstration of our intention to demonstrate that FertiGlobal products aren’t just there to help grow food more responsibly, but also the many other products – fibre and flowers to name just two – that we expect agriculture and horticulture to provide.

At FertiGlobal the sustainability and quality across all forms of agriculture are in our sights.

Indian market

The Apples of Kashmir

It’s known as ‘the fruit bowl of India’ for good reason. Here in Jammu and Kashmir, in the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, horticulture contributes nearly 10 per cent to the state’s GDP.

Fertile soils combine with a variety of climate conditions to favour a diverse crop of fruits, vegetables, spices and flowers. Citrus, pomegranates, lychees, almonds, tulips, walnuts and even high-value saffron are the bounty of the region’s farmers.

But it’s apples that are the undisputed leader, for it’s here that more than 75% of India’s apples are grown. Yet despite the crop’s value, farmers are not without their challenges – disease, climate change and various economic hurdles among them.

It’s for this reason that FertiGlobal has chosen Kashmir for the launch of our Apple Crop Management Program (ACMP). We’ve talked in previous articles about how our ‘boots on the ground’ philosophy pays dividends: being out in the field regularly, seeing those end-user challenges first-hand, gives us our own reality check. And it’s from these regular visits conducted by our Global Business Development Manager, Claus Brakemeier, that we’ve come to appreciate the real appetite amongst Indian farmers for new technologies that can deliver better crop quality and production.

“Farmers want to understand how they can deploy new methods and techniques, particularly with regard to nutrition, to help them upscale productivity,” says Dr Rajesh Kumar Sharma, FertiGlobal’s Technical Manager in India.

“They’re looking for safer ways to manage their crop. The currently accepted crop management schedule is pesticide intensive, which not only poses environmental hazards but can also lower product quality,” Dr Sharma points out.

Farmers’ reliance on crop inputs has been highlighted by the region’s politicians, with one recently expressing concerns over the sale of unapproved or even fake fertilisers and pesticides. Farmers using these have suffered crop losses and soil degradation.

“The fact remains that India holds the world’s second-largest area of apple production, yet is ranked fifth globally in productivity: 7.5Mt/ha versus a world average of 15.5Mt/ha,” says Claus Brakemeier.

“India has fair scope to improve its apple productivity, given that the world’s best figures are at 44Mt/ha and 40.1Mt/ha, for France and Italy respectively.

“The secret lies in stress mitigation and stage-specific apple nutrition, with a focus on calcium and magnesium,” he continues, “and it’s this that forms the basis of the Apple Crop Management Program.”

At the heart of ACMP lies EnNuVi Technology-based products such as Mantus and Cautha. These products embody EnNuVi’s bioactivating Technology, with its unique ability to trigger and control crops’ defence and resistance mechanisms.

By turning on and off certain plant genes, EnNuVi Technlogy offers a robust stress mitigation strategy. Prevention being better than cure, crops treated in this manner are strong enough to defend themselves against pathogenic attack, removing or reducing the need for chemical intervention.

The launch of the Apple Crop Management Plan follows earlier visits to the region by Mr Brakemeier, and the completion of a FertiGlobal-sponsored study, “Biotic Stress Management under Agro Climatic conditions of North-Western Himalayas of Kashmir (India)”, conducted by Sher-e Kashmir University of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Shalimar (Srinagar) (SKAUST-K).

It builds directly on insights shared by Kashmir’s apple growers as well as SCL Commercial India, which represents FertiGlobal in India. ACMP links FertiGlobal’s research-based Technologies to the support that farmers need, as more than 300 progressive farmers and agri-input traders were told at an invitation-only event to mark the launch of ACMP.

Delivering his inaugural speech, the Chief Guest Dr Nazir Ahmad Ganai (Honourable Vice Chancellor, SKAUST-K), welcomed the presence of FertiGlobal and Mr Brakemeier in the region. In particular, he called out the ‘overwhelming impacts’ of abiotic stresses on the growth and productivity of crops, noting that they in turn posed a threat of the biotic stresses of fungi, bacteria and viruses. Together, this combination could ‘develop constraints to food security worldwide’.

Continuing, Dr Ganai expressed his delight at the partnership between SKAUST-K and FertiGlobal, hailing the exchange of ideas, discussions among experts, and the import of ‘world-class technologies’ that would help address the challenges and identify the opportunities in sustainable, quality apple production.

Dr Rifat Bhat, SKAUST-K’s Project Leader for the FertiGlobal partnership, shared her own experiences and observations of FertiGlobal Technologies in the research project. She explained how the concept of stress mitigation is holding up favourably in the field, producing consistent results. She also shared her opinion on how FertiGlobal products were influencing key metrics, including crop vigour and apple quality, notably colour, shape and size.

“This was a unique event bringing together the scientific community, distribution partners, progressive farmers and, importantly, the local media that’s key to knowledge transfer and mobilisation,” concludes Dr Sharma.

“The event emphasised the need for advanced nutrition technologies and how FertiGlobal, through combining scientific endeavour and commercial wisdom, is becoming a valued partner to Kashmir apple growers in their pursuit of improved apple crop productivity.”

*Dr. Rajesh Sharma (at the right side), together with mr. Tanveer, Country Manager SCL India (in the middle), and mr. Deepak, Sales Manager SCL India (at the left side)*

FertiGlobal’s patented EnNuVi Technology

Making the right impression with EnNuVi

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so the saying goes, and nowhere is that more applicable than with biological crop inputs.

Few would dispute that ‘biologicals’ – crop inputs containing, or derived from, naturally occurring substances such as microbes, or other plants – are on the rise. Yet the current generation of products owes much of their ascendancy to sustained work by manufacturers and developers to dispel the ‘backyard bathtub’ image that many growers associate with non-standard crop protection products.

Frustratingly for those with a focus on viable, non-conventional inputs, growers have often been right in their assessment of some of these ‘alternative’ products. Why? Because too many of them simply have not lived up to their claims. Once bitten, twice shy: growers became suspicious and doubtful about biologicals’ ability to deliver.

Knowing this is half the battle. At FertiGlobal it’s constantly in our minds. But we have one critical advantage: we are driven by a resolute commitment to research, using science and data responsibly, to develop technically robust products that can deliver clear results for growers.

That’s especially important to us because our products are not ‘standard’ biologicals.

Of course, our R&D activities are not just limited to the lab. We need to test and check our products under field conditions. And that’s what led us to Germany this year, where we’ve been delighted with a new set of trials, conducted under the watchful eye of the Bavarian State Research organisation.

Specifically, these trials examined the performance of EnNuVi in typical German crops, under typical conditions. EnNuVi – an acronym of Enhance, Nurture, Vitalize – is a worldwide patented bioactivating Technology that has a unique ability to trigger and control plants’ defence and resistance systems. EnNuVi Technology based products regulate and influence the genes in the plant, helping to protect it from stress events. Its molecule of essential plant nutrients, active polyphenols and selected natural ingredients helps the crop to grow, healthy and strong, to reach its full yield potential.

What’s really special about all EnNuVi Technology based products is that by boosting a crop’s natural defence systems, they can significantly reduce pesticide use. That meets the central tenets of FertiGlobal’s philosophy: reducing farming’s impact on the environment, and ensuring farmers can deliver high-yielding, high-quality output without requiring excessive resource use (EnNuVi also reduces crops’ water consumption).

Focused on potatoes, these trials in Germany were demonstration trials, carried out on commercial farms and designed to open farmers’ eyes to EnNuVi potential.

Across five farms, the trials included:

LG Oettersdorf*

Left: standard practice + Mantus and Thesan; Right: standard practice

The farmer put 10ha of his potatoes into the demo trials, one-tenth of his total potato area. The picture shows the variety Lilly, one of 40 varieties grown at this farm.

The farmer reported that plants treated with EnNuVi were more stable, an observation confirmed during subsequent assessments.

Five different fungicides were used to check EnNuVi Technology based products.

Agrahof Gospersgrün

Overview of ware potato trial

A farm growing 14 varieties of potatoes, with a similar fungicide programme.

LWB Dziabel

Plot ware potato trial

This farm also grows Lilly, a popular variety, alongside crops of Laura, Bellana and Afra, of which 0.4 ha was given over to the trial. This farmer also trialled EnNuVi on a crop of leeks, with clearly evident results.

Agrargenossenschaft Lößnitz-Stollberg*

Left: standard practice + Mantus and Thesan; Right: standard practice (sample taken from one plant)

Another multi-variety farm, here Baltic Rose and Milva were cultivated with EnNuVi.

Agrar Dresdner Vorland

Left: standard practice + Mantus and Thesan; Right: standard practice

Five hectares of Laura were treated with EnNuVi. The participating farmer was so happy with the results, that he wants to apply EnNuVi to the rest of the crop

(*) farms producing seed potatoes. The others are producing ware potatoes.

Notes and observations:

Across all sites, vegetative growth was complete
Flowering partially completed
Climatic conditions: wet
Fungicide application internal was 7 days (Lößnitz-Stollberg: 5 days)
Phytophthora disease stress was high. Where EnNuVi was applied, less disease stress was observed
EnNuVi-treated crops yielded potatoes that were significantly wider, larger and uniform, across the 35-40mm size standard
All farmers were satisfied and convinced with the effect of EnNuVi, with only one neutral opinion (Lößnitz-Stollberg).

Fantastic results: simple but effective, measured and easily reproducible, it’s trials like these that can – without showy or excessively confident claims – win back farmers’ belief and interest in bringing real alternative products into their farming systems, and give them the insight they need to be assured that they’re making a good decision.

And it’s also great for us at FertiGlobal. In the coming months, we’re going to put new focus on EnNuVi and strive to define the best positioning that will deliver best value to the grower.

We believe the EnNuVi value proposition should be to protect crop yields through more resilient plants, under any adverse conditions – thus protecting farmers’ investments.

This is our contribution to the sustainability and quality of crop production.

Report from global tour

Why simple works

Africa was the focus of our last blog, when FertiGlobal’s Business Development Manager Claus Brakemeier explained how our partners are crucial to the success of our products. In this second part of our Africa focus, we’re taking a closer look at the products finding favour with Africa’s farmers.

How do you launch products in a country where the farmers, without exception, are unaware of the FertiGlobal brand and its speciality crop input portfolio?

In fact, it’s not just the FertiGlobal portfolio of which they have little awareness. Farmers in our three ‘market entry’ countries – Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa – have little awareness of any speciality products, because they’re not using them. Compared with Europe, or Latin America, there’s very little market penetration of this crop input category in southern Africa.

At first glance, that might appear to make any kind of market entry an uphill struggle. But that’s exactly why we’ve been very careful to select the right products to make the right introduction.

No matter where they are in the world, farmers are understandably cautious about the claims attached to novel products and new categories. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression; in farming, that translates to ‘you only get one chance to make the right decision’.

A product’s failure ‘to do what it says on the tin’ not only destroys trust in a category, but also directly affects a grower’s bottom line. At best it’s an unrealised return on investment; at worse, a potentially serious loss of yield.

That’s why FertiGlobal evidences all its product claims with full trial data. Farmers need this vital reassurance to give them full confidence in the provenance and performance of every product they choose to use on their crops.

Many farmers in this region already recognise that their crops are falling short of their yield potential, and that crops have yet to reach European standards of productivity. In many ways they’re hampered, though, because distributors do not carry the specialist products, such as biostimulants, that European farmers are so enthusiastically adopting.

Growers will often admit themselves that there’s a need for better knowledge mobilisation, too. Their uncertainty about which products to use, and whether they’ll offer a good return on investment, further dissuades them from stepping outside their product comfort zone.

Against this background, we decided to keep things simple. That’s why we’re blazing a trail into this region with just four key products: Mantus, Dinamico, Colore and OK. Well-known, well-proven products, they have been the subject of repeated, extended, widespread trials in many different crops and countries. We know exactly what they can do.

Keeping it simple means using these four products to demonstrate the concept and potential of FertiGlobal’s Total Crop Management approach, with a well-structured knowledge transfer programme run in partnership with Bancella. These four products also provide farmers with a comprehensive use case on the region’s key crops: tobacco, still of major economic importance in this region, vegetables, wheat, soybeans, blueberries, citrus, peas and potatoes.

In addition to Bancella’s role in helping FertiGlobal to secure registrations across the region, I’ve also been impressed by the enthusiasm shown by local agronomists and pest control advisers (PCAs). Brian Hayes, a well-respected and renowned PCA working with tobacco growers in Zimbabwe, has reported very positive results from his early trials with Mantus, one of our EnNuVi-enabled products. Here, a single application of Mantus at 1l/ha led to great result in fighting off Cercospora (frogeye).

Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, farmer Keith Butler is trialling OK on non-irrigated soybeans. While the crop has been under water stress, Keith reported that the area treated with OK – from our Foliarel technology range – has seen a marked improvement in plant development. We’re awaiting the harvest analysis to assess whether the visual cues extend to yield improvement too.

I can’t wait to share some further results from this region as we make progress in communicating the benefits of FertiGlobal’s Total Crop Management programmes to local farmers and their advisers. After all, this is an area with huge agricultural potential: its farmers just need the right tools and sufficient knowledge to help them realise it, sustainably and efficiently.

Crop focus

Going bananas

It’s the world’s most popular fruit: every year, the 100 billion bananas we chomp our way through account for more than three-quarters of the tropical fruit trade. But as news of the first genetically modified banana has recently revealed, it’s a precarious trade.

Nearly every banana sold in every shop, in every country, on every continent, is a clone. They’re all examples of the Cavendish banana. Its ubiquity came about in the 1950s and 1960s because the previous global favourite – the Gros Michel – succumbed to the devastating Panama disease, caused by a form of Fusarium known as Tropical Race 1 (TR1).

The Gros Michel banana was itself a genetic clone, lacking the diversity that might have allowed it to evolve a genetic defence against attack by TR1. Instead, the Cavendish – a higher yielding variety, with thicker skin that made it even better suited to export – was selected from a naturally occurring hybrid that displayed the necessary resistance to TR1. It quickly became the world’s dominant banana variety, grown everywhere from South America to Africa and throughout Asia and into Australia.

But in 1990, a new disease – TR4 – was detected in Taiwan. Now widespread in more than 20 banana-producing countries, according to the FAO, it has put the Cavendish in potentially the same precarious position as the Gros Michel, eighty years ago. We could be facing a banana crisis on a global scale: in an industry worth $25bn, with annual production of more than 125 million tonnes, that’s a chilling thought.

What’s so devastating about Panama disease? Effectively, the total death of the plant: yellowing leaves quickly brown, before falling off. Then the fungus moves into the stem and roots, killing the tissue as it moves throughout the plant. Even replanting is not the solution. Once in the soil, TR4 becomes virtually impossible to eradicate.

It’s for this reason that the Australian government has approved an application from Queensland University of Technology to release QCAV-4, a genetically modified Cavendish variety developed to show resistance to TR4.

The resistance gene, labelled RGA2, has been taken from a wild banana variety found in South-East Asia. Interestingly, the gene is already present, although dormant, in the Cavendish variety. Approval of the variety gives the researchers the go-ahead to trial it in real conditions on farm; there are no plans yet to allow consumers to buy the new GM banana.

They’ll also try to use the CRISPR technique – gene-editing – to introduce the resistant gene, as gene-editing poses fewer hurdles when it comes to acceptance by regulators and consumers.

Another disease the researchers have identified as a target for gene-edited varieties is black sigatoka, brought on by the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis. A foliar disease that causes lesions, chlorosis and physical collapse of the leaf, black sigatoka will ultimately cause the death of the plant. Chemical control is possible but requires an intense spraying programme of up to 50 applications every year. Even then, yield may be slashed by as much as 50%.

Adding to this grim outlook is the loss of many of the active ingredients that are most effective against black sigatoka. Mancozeb, for example, has already been banned in many countries; growers still permitted to apply it may nonetheless be prevented from using it, owing to production protocols imposed by their buyers.

But with any genetic solution still some way off, what’s the best option for banana producers facing the headache of black sigatoka? It’s a challenge that FertiGlobal took up.

Finding and commercialising these breakthrough solutions, that can assure farmers of yield and quality while observing regulatory parameters and environmental obligations, are FertiGlobal’s ‘bread and butter’. To help farmers navigate the threat of black sigatoka, we turned to our EnNuVi Technology, the patented nutrient-polyphenolic-molecule that focuses on facilitating the strengthening of the plant’s natural defence systems.

There’s a wealth of evidence to show that a balanced combination of nutrients – putting the plant in good stead – fortifies the plant, reducing its susceptibility to both biotic and abiotic stresses. With better health comes increased energy, allowing it to use its own in-built mechanisms to ward off attack by pathogens such as Mycosphaerella. If a plant can resist infection, a farmer’s need for fungicides is much reduced.

FertiGlobal took EnNuVi technology to India and the Philippines – respectively the world’s largest and sixth-largest banana producers – for trials.

The first trial, conducted in India, examined the losses induced in banana plants through leaf wilting. Farmer standard practice often saw wilting in more than half of all plants, leading to a loss in crop ROI of over $200/ha. But in plants treated with the EnNuVi-enabled Semia, the percentage of wilting plants was slashed to less than 10%, reducing investment loss by 85%.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the trial proposed to see whether EnNuVi would increase the number of functional leaves on each banana plant, boosting overall plant health and energy levels to help it fight stress and attack. Of all the EnNuVi products tested, Mantus provided the best result: a 44% increase in functional leaves, over the standard practice, after 45 days.

So while EnNuVi products can’t be seen as a direct replacement for mancozeb, because they don’t exhibit any fungicidal properties, they can – if applied at the correct time in the crop cycle – provide growers with an earlier alternative that may alleviate their need for fungicides at a later date.

We’re not stopping at bananas, of course. FertiGlobal is committed to ensuring continuing success in every crop in which we have an interest. If we can help farmers, wherever they are in the world, reduce the use of agrochemicals and maintain or increase their crop’s productivity and yield, we’ll find a way to do it. It’s the FertiGlobal way.

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