Innovative seed applied technology solutions help growers protect their seed investment and maximize yield potential. Here’s what’s ahead from Corteva.
What an incredibly long way agriculture has come. In 1940, a farmer who planted corn/maize could expect to harvest about 40 bushels per acre in the U.S., or about 1.5 tonnes per hectare in France. Today, production has jumped by a factor of more than four. The huge yield gains have been made possible thanks to a combination of contributors: nitrogen application, precision equipment, better genetics, enhanced pest management and … drumroll please… seed applied technologies.
The first commercial seed treatment, a fungicide, was introduced in 1968. In the decades since, seed applied technologies (SATs) have become an increasingly critical component in realising seeds’ potential. By enhancing the health and vigor of the seedlings, seed-applied technologies can improve the crop’s resilience and performance throughout the season, resulting in higher yields and better crop quality.
SATs today include a full range of seed protectants from fungicides to insecticides to nematicides designed to shield seeds from various biotic and abiotic stresses that can affect seeds’ germination, emergence and establishment. SATs increasingly also include biologicals, which provide growth benefits to the crop at the seedling stage and beyond.
“Seed applied technologies have been proven for quite a long time. As the industry and the market changes and the economics of inputs change, we need to protect the seed investment for growers more than ever. Seed applied technologies are an important avenue to do that,” says David Borgmeier.
As Corteva’s Category Leader for Seed Applied Technologies, it is Borgmeier’s job to collaborate with external groups to understand the needs of Corteva’s partners and bring innovative solutions to farmers. In his role, he works closely with researchers, product developers and commercial teams to carry SATs from concept to commercialization.
The SAT Development Process
Corteva (and its predecessor Dow) has long been a frontrunner in SATs. In April 2022, the company took that commitment a step further by opening its Centre for Seed Applied Technologies (CSAT), a state-of-the-art facility in Aussonne, France designed exclusively to deliver new, innovative seed applied technologies from concept to commercialization.
“At Corteva, we have a robust portfolio of seed-applied technologies that cover a wide range of crops: corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, sunflowers and more. Our goal is to introduce new,
Corteva’s Category Leader for Seed Applied Technologies, David Borgmeier
advanced products to the marketplace to enhance seed protection even further and to provide farmers with more choices and flexibility. We recognize that each crop, region and field has its own unique conditions and challenges, and we aim to tailor our products to suit these diverse needs,” says Borgmeier.
Developing new products is a major, multi-step process that starts with perfecting a recipe, progresses through application research, then focuses on extensive testing, Borgmeier explains.
“Our emphasis is on bringing different components together to create the best possible product through recipes or combinations that optimize the synergies of each ingredient,” he says. “We then conduct extensive field trials across different geographies and environments to evaluate our products under real-world conditions. We are constantly exploring new ways to enhance our products and expand our portfolio. Since only a very few products successfully pass the rigorous evaluation and testing phases on route to commercialization, Corteva conducts a very broad search for potential ingredients with the help of partners and collaborators.
“We have a very deliberate process in place to discover, develop and deliver new products,” Borgmeier says. “We collaborate
with others in the industry to ensure we have a lot of products to screen. The ability to bring different components together to deliver the best product possible through recipes or combinations is critical, so we first start with a broad net to pull in a lot of different products to screen.”
What’s coming next in SATs?
Borgmeier says Corteva’s development pipeline is focused on responding to agriculture’s rapid and constant changes via diverse protection.
“The reality is that we’ll keep running into new diseases and changes in the environment that add different stresses to a growing crop. We want to make sure we bring multiple modes of action to be able to best protect farmers’ seed investment,” he says.
Durability is another top-of-mind priority in the development process.
“We need to deliver products that are going to last,” Borgmeier says.
While delivering innovative hard chemistries will continue to be critical, arguably the most exciting addition in SATs are biologicals: products derived from natural sources including microorganisms, plant extracts or organic matter that can offer pesticidal benefits and/or improve plant growth, health and stress tolerance. Corteva recently acquired two leading biologicals companies.
“Through our acquisitions of Symborg and Stoller, we have access to a broad and deep biologicals portfolio that complements our existing chemistry products,” Borgmeier says. “By combining biologicals with traditional chemistry, we can create novel products that offer multiple benefits to farmers, such as improved nutrient uptake, enhanced root development, increased disease resistance and reduced environmental impact.”
SATs are a key component of helping seeds reach their genetic potential. That’s more important today than ever, not only because of the many challenges of farming, but also because of the world’s critical need for maximum food production.
“In the next handful of years, I expect agriculture is going to progress even faster,” Borgmeier says. “We’re going to have to think about things in different ways. There are so many pressures and challenges, whether they be regulatory, environmental, new products and concepts, growth dynamics, consolidation of farms and more. We know we’ve got to increase production on less land. Innovative and effective SATs are one important piece of that puzzle.”
David Borgmeier - Corteva’s Category Leader for Seed Applied Technologies,
