New Ag International- June/July 2017- English Edition

June 17 Cover_Sept 2004 Cover 18/05/2017 17:31 Page 1

June/July 2017

Precision Ag, Irrigation, Plant Nutrition, Fertigation, Greenhouse Technology, Biostimulants Heard and Seen at the New Ag Conference in Berlin le i f o r P s ’ r e d a Le

K+S Kali GmbH (Germany)

Fertigation through Pivots: The example of potatoes Soil Sensors: What’s new in the market

Welcome to the 2nd Biocontrol ASIA Conference and Exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand, 7-9 June, 2017

MESSAGE FROM EDITOR_MESSAGE FROM EDITOR (june) 16/05/2017 14:09 Page 1

A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR NEW AG INTERNATIONAL

A NEW PLATFORM IS BORN, GATHERING BIOLOGICALS AND PRECISION AG STAKEHOLDERS! Precision agriculture powered by GPS technology – at first a novelty – has now become the norm, driven in part by economic necessity. Putting fertilizer where it is most needed, in the precise amounts required, improves both input utilization and final yields.

That variable-rate technology, first applied to dry fertilizer application, is now beginning to revolutionize the irrigation industry. A new world where a network of sensors constantly monitors soil moisture conditions and directs systems capable of variable-rate irrigation is rapidly becoming a reality.

This next-generation approach to irrigation is also creating opportunities for more precise and effective application of liquid fertilizer and crop protection products through those systems.

Our 2017 Biostimulants World Congress will take place in Miami during 27-30 November.

Visit us at www.newaginternational.com to register at the early bird rate until end July!!!

And what’s next? Of course biologicals: biopesticides and biostimulants success in the market will be closely linked to their true performance, which is linked to the precision of their application: right place and right time mainly! This is why a new, however “natural” platform is born during our Berlin conference that gathered more than 500 people, of which a good number from the biologicals and the Precision Ag world!

What a pleasure to see the R&D Director of a leading global biostimulant company passionately talking to a top Precision Ag speaker right after the latter gave his talk without even mentioning the word “biostimulant”! See our report on the Berlin conference in this issue of the magazine.

Precision Ag is here to stay, including as an integral part of most of our conferences. Our “fingerprint” compared to other events organizers will continue to be our ability to organize a fruitful cross talk between various industries.

As I write these lines people from around Asia and the rest of the world are preparing their trip to Bangkok to attend our 2nd Biocontrol Asia conference and exhibition. The potential of biopesticides is tremendous in this part of the world, which has been and still is heavily using (misusing sometimes) agrochemicals.

Some countries, such as India, have started their mental revolution, with the Agrochemical industry now involving itself in biologicals and supporting events like ours. China has to do the same and start converting to a more sustainable approach: indeed the country has all the R&D, financial and production means to achieve this quicker than anyone else! This brings me to a cutting edge event with whom we partner this year: GreenSys, the platform for greenhouse technology and cropping, which will take place in Beijing in August. I hope that some papers about biological plant protection in greenhouses (where it all started!) will be on the conference agenda.

In the meantime, I wish you a good read of this issue of the magazine.

Jean-Pierre Leymonie Director

www.newaginternational.com

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CONTENT June 17_CONTENTS SEPT 04 16/05/2017 14:42 Page 1

C O N T E N T S

JUNE/JULY 2017

NEW AG INTERNATIONAL

NEWS REVIEW

is a publication of New Ag International SARL au capital de 20,000 Euros 5 Rue Bertrand MONNET, 68000 COLMAR, France newag@newaginternational.com www.newaginternational.com

PLANT PROTECTION CORNER

Gérants/Directors: Jean-Pierre Leymonie, Bruce Neale, Ralph Thawley.

Editorial Director: JP Leymonie New Ag International 12 rue du Hagueneck 68000 COLMAR, France Tel: +33(0)389305120 Email: editorial@newaginternational.com

Mrs Tang Jie

LEADER’S PROFILE

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise-without the prior written permission of the Copyright Owner.

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PRODUCTS & TRENDS

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Disrupting technologies, biostimulants: Report from the New Ag International Conference in Berlin.

Soil sensors: What’s new in the market, by P. Trebilcock.

Advertising Enquiries: Email: advertising@newaginternational.com

Issued four times per year Reprints of articles obtainable on application to the Editorial Director.

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K+S Kali Gmbh takes a step forward in specialty fertilizers: An exclusive interview with Alexa Hergenroether, Managing Director.

Contributing Editor: Oded Achilea Email: od.achilea@gmail.com

Administration and Production Manager: Diane Jones Email: newag@newaginternational.com

THE PRECISION AG CORNER When Datanomics meet Agronomics: Report from the New Ag International Conference in Berlin.

Plant Protection Corner: M. Loison Email: m.loison@wanadoo.fr

Marketing and Sales Manager: Jacqui French Email: advertising@newaginternational.com

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Combining bioprotection and Pollination.

New microorganisms for biocontrol.

By Marianne Loison.

Editor & Latin America Correspondent Patricio Trebilcock La Capitanía 681, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.

Phone: +56 2 2010550 newagspanish@gmail.com

Director of Business Development & Operations: François Levesque Email: newag@newaginternational.com

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Headline news: An exclusive interview with Mrs Tang Jie, Managing Director, Beijing Leili Marine Bioindustry Group.

Alexa Hergenroether

IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION TECHNOLOGY

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Water saving & Fertigation trends: Report from the Berlin conference.

Fertigation through Pivots: The example of potatoes,

by P.Trebilcock & F. Levesque.

REGIONAL REPORT

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Germany from tradition to Precision Ag: Report from Berlin.

AGRONOMICS & ECONOMICS

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Specialty Plant Nutrition novelties: from iodine and magnesium to Potassium Nitrate and micronutrients: A report from the New Ag International Conference in Berlin.

© 2017 New Ag International SARL Subscription enquiries to: Email: newag@newaginternational.com

PEOPLE & EVENTS

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Annual subscription: Euros 175 (4 issues per year - hard copies, online version and access to past issues)

WEB DIRECTORY

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Designed in England Email: tony@alphaset.co.uk Printed in the UK by The Magazine Printing Company www.magprint.co.uk New Ag International accepts no responsibility or liability for the validity or information supplied by contributors, vendors, advertisers or advertising agencies.

Front cover picture: Pivot Irrigation of potatoes, courtesy of T-L Irrigation.

Editorial and photo acknowledgements: Special thanks to all speakers at the New Ag International Conference in Berlin.

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News June 17_Layout 1 18/05/2017 17:36 Page 1

N E W S R E V I E W

An interview with

Mrs Tang Jie, Managing Director of Beijing Leili Marine Bioindustry Group (China) of alginic acid, chitosan oligosaccharide, fucoidan, fucoxanthin, and classification of algae based products. The testing method on alginic acid published this time, adopted the alginic acid detection method of Leili 2000, an alginic acid based organic compound liquid fertilizer owing to Leili`s scientific and technological achievements in 1998.

Mrs Tang Jie

Not long ago, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced six novel fertilizer industry standards, which cover humic acid urea, humic acid compound fertilizer, alginic acid urea and alginic acid fertilizer.

They will now be released as an industry standard for “recommended implementation.�

Do you see this as the standardization and normalization of Chinese biostimulant products progressing at an accelerated speed or is it just a first move in the right direction?

The publication of the new standard, representing the first big step across to standardization in China in new type fertilizers containing biostimulants, will play a positive role in the technical innovation in the industry. As a high-tech enterprise engaging in research & development and production of algae source biostimulants, Leili presided over and participated in setting the industry standards including testing method

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What is the significance of this release of a new fertilizer standard to Leili?

It is the 19th anniversary of Leili 2000, the first alginic acid based organic compound liquid fertilizer which passed through the identification by the ministry of science and technology and the ministry of agriculture of China. The release of this standard shows the recognition to Leili Group by the industry for Leili`s continuously original research and development on algae source biostimulants and alginic acid fertilizers in the past 24 years. It indicates that as the representative products of algae based biostimulants and alginc acid fertilizers, ALGA600 and ALGASOIL will meet rapid development opportunities and enter the mainstream channels, allowing to reduce the input of agrochemicals and chemical fertilizers.

You recently said the company would open its alginic acid fertilizer and compound fertilizer technologies to the industries for cooperation by providing raw material package and processing techniques. How will Leili choose its partners and how will the cooperation

agreement look?

What momentum will the shared technology package bring to Leili? And is this limited to partners in China?

This kind of technical sharing shall be open to Leili partners globally. The selection of partner requires: firstly, the partner has the recognition of our development philosophy and the desire to upgrade development, which will in turn help to drive the quick development of their company by technical innovation. Secondly, the partners have the advantage of production and application studies locally which can provide a more convenient service to users. It can be operated with both brands.

Leili has over 20 years history and more than 15 years experiences in manufacturing organic algal compound fertilizers. We have widely exported them to Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America. The suggestions from our partners are one important driver for us to innovate in our technology. This is the reason why we are willing to help our partners save time and money on product development. This kind of technical sharing will promote the healthy development of Algal fertilizers and result in numerous win-win deals.

The EU is about to have its Biostimulants regulation very soon.

Are you welcoming it?

We welcome the biostimulants regulation of the EU. ALGA600, one of Leili’s main algal biostimulant products, has been exported to 15 countries in the EU, and entered the market of high-end cash crops and field crops. After the EU new

regulation is released, Leili will actively abide by it.

How do you see the future of seaweed extracts as biopesticides in China?

It should be noted that, although the alginic acid fertilizer industry standard has been announced, the algal biostimulant, or so called agricultural seaweed extract, still has no industry standard so far. It is like in the pesticide industries, even no technical grade standards, the formulation standard has been released. In this innovative era, everything is possible. Seaweed based biopesticides have emerged in the EU since a long time and will have great prospects in China.

Some Algae experts say that it can raise all the human beings by planting algae in 2% of the marine area in the future; Do you believe this?

The prediction of algae experts represents the vision of human beings to develop the resources from the ocean. In fact, as a renewable resource, algae has a strong capability of photosynthesis and contains many active substances which are nutrients not existing in terrestrial plants. It is an inexhaustible resource if we can make appropriate development.

You clearly want to enter the human food market based on seaweed, with fucoidan, fucoxanthin, algae polyphenols and other highly active substances from algae being developed into a health care food, as well as develop more marine green vegetables.

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P L A N T P ROT E C T I O N C O R N E R

Bees and bumblebees deployed to protect crops Useful insects could not only complete pollination but also spread biocontrol agents on flowering crops.

Companies Biobest and BVT are the two major pioneers in patenting this technology. M Loison reports.

IN 2013, BIOBEST (BELGIUM) introduced a new system for delivering biological plant protection, replacing costly spraying: the “Flying Doctors” concept. The idea is simple: bees and bumblebees used as vectors in the pollination of crops such as strawberries, can also carry and deliver microbial “medicine” to plants, in order to control grey mould and other major diseases, which cause huge yield losses annually. The “Flying Doctors” system, which received many awards, is ingenious: it consists of a patented dispenser system that is available as a fully integrated option to the new standard bumblebee hive. As the bumblebees leave their hive, they walk through a tray of specially formulated microbial fungicide or insecticide preparation, which clings to their legs and body.

They then deliver this product directly to each flower they visit. It can be used on fruit or vegetable crops, however the focus is currently on flower-associated diseases such as grey mould and pests like flower thrips. Prestop 4B is the first biofungicide delivered by bumble bees on strawberry and raspberry

authorized in Belgium and the Netherlands, and recently introduced in France. The formula is based on the fungus Gliocladium catulanum 1446, coming from Lallemand Plant Care research.

Growers availability of the technology is however restricted due to registration requirements of both the biofungicide and FD as application, as 1107/2009 EC PPP regulation requires national registration of the biofungicide in this specific FD application.

NEW PATENTS IN THE USA AND SOON IN EUROPE In North America, Bee Vectoring technologies (BVT) is also developing new applications with bees by placing a tray of organic pesticide inside a commercially bred hive. In March 2017, BVT (based in Mississauga, Canada) announced that it has filed a patent application with the US patent office for a unique and novel system that allows the delivery of plant protection products to crops using commercial honeybees. BVT’s technology described in the patent includes a specialist apparatus for the treat-

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ment of plants with inoculants and control agents to manage diverse diseases and pests and enhance the yield and quality of crops. The inoculants and control agents are housed in proprietary removable trays within a dispenser system that is incorporated in the lid of commercial bee hives.

There are an estimated 80 million commercial honeybee hives in use worldwide. The newly developed BVT system is compatible with most commercial honeybee hives and is designed to deliver a wide variety of plant protection products. One is BVT’s proprietary BVT-CR7 biological control agent, which inhibits or eliminates common diseases and pests in crops that are pollinated by honeybees. These include almonds, apples, melons, and sunflowers. This system is a highly effective alternative to spraying application methods. In initial trials in sunflowers in Ontario in 2016, the BVT honeybee system uniformly delivered the BVT-CR7 biological control agent to the crop and produced a 31% increase in yield for the grower. Additional work in 2016 treating sunflowers in the US with BVT-CR7 using bees showed effective suppression of sclerotinia, a costly disease in sunflowers, and one for which there is currently no viable protective solution. More trials of the honeybee system are scheduled by BVT for 2017 on sunflowers and other crops.

“In the US, the value of crops that benefit from pollination by honeybees is close to $20 billion, and in California alone there are almost one million acres of almond trees that rely on approximately one million honeybee hives every year for pollination.” states Ashish Malik, recently appointed CEO of BVT.

“We will be continuing to test our new system in field conditions this year and making further refinements to the design based on testing data if and where required.”

The patent application for the honeybee delivery system represents the start of a 5th patent family for the company. BVT is pursuing an aggressive IP strategy with over 60 patent applications worldwide after having received approval on 11 of these patents in 7 countries worldwide.

Very recently on April 13, 2017, BVT announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted a Patent Application. For Ashish Malik: “This is our first patent approved by the EPO; 3 other patents are currently under review. As we develop our system for growers across Europe and advance our business development discussions with potential partners, this patent and the others that will follow, will allow us to assert our intellectual property rights and give us a competitive advantage.” Europe as a region represents a significant revenue opportunity for the company, as the reduction in use of chemicals is scheduled by E.U. For these companies, developing the technology in different continents also means to choose native bees and bumble bees that respect the ecological balance and avoid introducing ‘alien’ species. After introduction in Europe, Biobest has planned to adapt the ‘Flying doctors’ to other countries.

The launch of a new western bumblebee species will allow growers in North America and Canada to take advantage of the scheme, with their own local species. And Biobest is already producing a native bumblebee from South-America Bombus atratus, for patenting it on different markets. ■

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P L A N T P ROT E C T I O N C O R N E R

Lure and infect: Towards new biostrategies for new fruit pests Better delivery of bioinsecticides on crops at preharvest is an important issue. One of the strategies is to design effective lures to trap pests and stop their reproduction before they damage fruits. M Loison reports.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO ADAPT the bioprotection to new pests such as flies with better results?

The suzuki-fruit fly which causes great damage, is one of the important targets. It has settled in southern Europe for ten years and then reached northern Europe. This species is especially dangerous, as it is able to infest young, undamaged fruit on the plants before harvest. Controlling this pest with chemical insecticides involves risks, especially the risk of chemical residue on the fruit at harvest. The solution of using local parasitic wasps found in Europe and tested on the suzuki-fruit fly so far seems not to be effective enough to control the pest. Something else had to be developed!

NEW STRAINS EFFECTIVE AGAINST REPRODUCTION Biocontrol gives different answers.

Among these, entomopathogenic fungi are a good example of a response against some newcoming flies. These specific fungi are selected to be specific of one pest.

Different products already on the market are used to control a range of pest insects above-and below ground: Botanigard (Beauveria bassiana), PreFeRal (Isarria fumosorosea), BIO1020 (Metarhizium brunneum). So far, the action of E. Fungi when sprayed on berries and flies appears to be not effective enough. The other

drawback of E. fungi is that their action is not instantaneous. So they cannot block reproduction of adult suzuki. “Before the flies die from the fungi, they still lay a considerable number of eggs in the fruit. It needs therefore faster working fungal strains and a different application strategy whereby young and virgin flies will be exposed to higher doses of the killing fungus.” explains researchers from Wageningen University.

LURE AND INFECT A different strategy to expose insects to entomopathogenic fungi would be to lure them to baits. A high concentration of fungal spores is present in the baits and is picked up by the attracted flies after landing on the bait. The advantage is that no large volume of spores has to be sprayed on the crop and no residues of the fungi on the plants and fruit will occur.

Furthermore, the attracted insects will pick up higher doses of the spores via the baits than via crop spraying, increasing thereby the chance of a successful infection of the insect.

The ‘Lure and Infect’ strategy has already been tested successfully on other pests. It has given good results on a cowpea crop against bean flower thrips (BFT), using Metarhizium anisopliae in combination with the thrips attractant Lurem-TR (methyl-isonicotinate).

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This ‘Lure and Infect’ strategy with suzuki, however, can only be effective if the baits are highly attractive, the amount of baits per field are economically affordable and the fungi have a fast mode of action in preventing at an early stage the reproduction of the flies.

In different trials at Wageningen University, new strains have been tested on their efficacy to infect and kill the suzuki-fruit fly. “One of the best strains (Metarhizium robertsii) was then tested for its value in a ‘Lure and Infect’ strategy next to two commercial products (Botanigard and PreFeRal). We found a 94% reduction in reproduction M. robertsii bait compared to the control.” notes Rob Van Tol. This ‘Lure and Infect’ strategy could be a future for flies control.

Greenhouse crop production seems ideal for the use of biological control agents. The goal is to optimize microbial efficacy by new formulation and conservation techniques and by selection of specific and virulent isolates than could be effective and persist under greenhouse conditions. Combining microbials is already promising since greenhouse climate control and new delivery methods are already available.

However, research also aims to bring a good alternative to the classic field spray. For this alternative to become practicable, the bait with the entomopathogenic fun-

gus has to be very attractive and able to compete with the fruit in the field. “Another idea is to see if the strategy could work if used at an early stage of the season before ripening of the fruit.” adds Rob Van Tol. The Wageningen department plans in 2017 to test baits in the open field.

Using ‘Lure and Infect’ in the future could have other applications. After suzuki, the pests list to control on fruits is far from being closed. There have been other flies appearing on crops in recent years.

Around 250 species of flies have been found in association with commercially produced fruits and vegetables. The importance of fresh horticultural markets will bring growing interest to the problems that fruit fly pests can cause.

With an obvious need to find ‘clean’ strategy to lower fly populations and remove them away from the crops, without leaving residues on harvested fruits and vegetables. ■ ‘Lure & Infect’ strategy blocks reproduction Drosophila suzukii http://dropsaproject.eu/ index.cfm?pageid=54 Lure and infect strategy for application of entomopathogenic fungus for the control of bean flower thrips in cowpea. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/

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T H E P R ECISION AG CORNER

Imagine How Agriculture may look like in 40 years!

For the first time, the 15th New Ag Conference & Exhibition held in Berlin hosted a technical session on Precision Agriculture.

This reaffirms the commitment of New Ag International with this new paradigm of agriculture. Ten high calibre speakers made their way to the stage and covered most aspects of Precision Ag: The dilemma of Precision Ag scale: Is PA only viable in large-scale farming?: The use of weather information in PA: Different PA solutions using remote sensing data: Integral solutions implemented in the so called Farm Management Information Systems; the farmer’s point of view on PA and, finally, why PA is not a success (yet)?

Maybe Precision Ag is not the ultimate solution to agricultural problems, but it is here to stay.

“In 10-15 years agriculture will be PA or it will not be!”

“PRECISION AGRICULTURE IS HERE TO STAY…” “…and in 10-15 years agriculture will be Precision Ag or it will not be!” This key sentence was one of the main conclusions of the keynote by Prof. José A. MartínezCasasnovas (University of Lleida, Spain), who presented a particular overview of “What’s behind the name of Precision Agriculture”.

Precision Agriculture (PA) is a relatively new paradigm in agriculture and farmers and technicians are starting to ask many questions: when does PA begin to make sense? How can we start implementing PA? How can we know the causes of within-field spatial variation? Is PA the ultimate solution to agricultural problems?

“The first time I heard about Precision Ag was in 2003” said Prof. Martínez-Casasnovas. “In that time I was asked to deliver a course on Precision Ag for technicians but I had never heard about that term.

In 2003, and for 10 years, I had been involved in teaching and research about the application of Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing technologies to soil erosion mapping and land evaluation, but not specifically to agriculture or Precision Ag”.

Actually, the first documents about precision or smart farming or agriculture appeared about 1995 (see the Precision Ag Corner published in the November 2016 issue of New Ag International). Since then, they have exponentially growth until today. And this tendency goes on.

This, together with the aforementioned advances in technology led to define the new paradigm of

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Precision Ag as “the production based on the analysis of crop/soil spatial variability and its differential management to optimize returns on inputs while minimizing environmental impacts”.

WHEN PRECISION AG BEGINS TO MAKE SENSE? This is a big question that farmers or technicians ask when commercials try to sell PA services/products or when people attend courses or conferences about PA. For example, “Is my field big enough to return the investment in PA practices?

Nevertheless, what few people realizes is that PA is not only a matter of size but a matter of variability and of how this variability is spatially structured (Figure 1). Then, the question could be reformulated as: Is my field variable enough and, if so, is variability structured in a way allowing the investment in PA practices to be returned?

HOW CAN A FARM START IMPLEMENTING PRECISION AG? Precision Ag is not a novel concept since farmers and technicians have always known that fields are variable, and therefore crop yields and quality. What happens is that today new technologies exists and are affordable enough not only to measure the spatial variability of crops and soils but also to automatically apply agricultural inputs at different rates (e.g. fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation) or to perform other types of management actions”. In parallel, the intensification of agriculture since the advent and massive expansion of mechanization has led to an increasing awareness about the influence of agriculture on environmental pollution.

PROF. MARTÍNEZ-CASASNOVAS

One of the first options is through yield monitoring. Actually, the availability of yield monitors since the 1990s, together with the possibility of georeferenced data collection using GPS or GNSS (see the Precision Ag Corner published in March 2017), is considered by many as the starting point of PA. However, high-resolution and multi-spectral satellite images soon appeared afterwards, making it possible to map the vegetation vigour prior to the harvest and to analyse the temporal spatial variability changes in detail. In addition, the availability of multi-spectral and hyperspectral cameras onboard aeroplanes, and nowadays in drones, have allowed higher spatial resolutions and the computation of a wide range of spectral indices to know specific characteristics of vegetation (e.g. chlorophyll content, water stress). These spectral

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L E A D E R ’S P R O F I L E

K+S Group:

A fresh look at a company that works hard on shaping its future!

In the 2016 fiscal year, revenues of the German Group K+S decreased by approximately 17 per cent to € 3.5 billion. The decrease was mainly due to a lower average price level in the Potash and Magnesium Products business unit and the severe production limitations at the Werra potash plant. Furthermore, the Salt business unit experienced lower sales volumes in the de-icing salt business because of mild weather in the winter months. The operating earnings (EBIT I) of the K+S Group decreased significantly to € 229 million from € 782 million compared to the same period in the previous year. At the same time, K+S invested significant amounts in two specialty fertilizer operations in China and Saudi Arabia.

New Ag International went for an interview with Alexa Hergenröther, Managing Director of K+S Kali GmbH.

STRENGTHENING OF SPECIALTIES BUSINESS The acquisition of the activities of Huludao Magpower Fertilizers Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer of fertilizers that contain magnesium sulphate was concluded in January

2017 after it had been announced in July 2016. Magpower is one of the largest Chinese producers of synthetic magnesium sulphate, which is used as a fertilizer for oil palms, soybeans and sugar cane as well as for industrial applications.

The products produced in Huludao will complement the K+S product

range through the addition of highly effective, water soluble magnesium sulfate. The site currently has a capacity of 90,000 tonnes which can be doubled to 180,000 tonnes in the foreseeable future.

In December 2016, K+S signed a contract to acquire a 30 per cent stake in Al-Biariq for Fertilizer Plant

Co., Ltd (Al-Biariq) in Saudi Arabia for a high single-digit million figure (US dollars). Through this purchase, K+S is seeking to participate in the growth in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, particularly in the fertigation segment (= use of fertilizers in irrigating systems). Al-Biariq is a manufacturer of fully soluble

An Interview with Alexa Hergenröther, Managing Director of K+S Kali GmbH the acquisition are the scalable low cost production assets.

ALEXA HERGENRÖTHER

The time is not far away when K+S was campaigning against synthetic Magnesium Sulphate performances vs the natural Kieserite extracted from the German mines. What are the factors that made the change happen and motivate the company to acquire Huludao?

Huludao Magpower Fertilizers Co. is one of the largest producers of synthetic magnesium sulphate (SMS). SMS is used as fertilizer for oil palms, soybeans and sugar cane as well as for industrial applications. With the acquisition we will strengthen our competitive position in specialties. Furthermore, we will achieve improved access to growth markets of South East Asia and China. A third reason for

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Has the Al-Biariq factory the potential to produce Water soluble NPKs? Our 30% stake in Al-Biariq and the possibility to acquire further 30% within 2 years provides access to water-soluble products to participate in fast growing fertigation markets (Middle East, Africa, South Asia). The current capacity is 20 kt water soluble SOP p.a., we intend to double this capacity in 2017.

Furthermore, SOP is a valuable raw material for the production of fully water-soluble compound fertilizers. In this regard we are going to expand our product portfolio at AlBiariq in the coming years.

Following this acquisition, have you started to reposition your Hortisul in a different market niche than that of fertigation where it never performed well?

As you might know, we produce

Hortisul by mining as a natural source for many applications.

Don’t forget that Hortisul is one of the few SOP fertilizers approved for organic farming according to the EU legislation. Globally, organic farming is growing production method in agriculture where Hortisul play an important role.

Are further acquisitions of other specialty fertilizer suppliers on the agenda, e.g. to allow K+S to have an access to controlled release technology and customize it to apply to potash fertilizers?

In accordance with our growth strategy we continuously review different acquisition possibilities which cover various technology and product areas in order to strengthen our specialty business.

Modern computing power has led to breakthroughs in the ability to collect, exchange, process, and synthesize data in ways that impact the use of

farm equipment, seed optimization, fertilizer and crop inputs, irrigation, and farm management. How do you see this affecting your business: threat or opportunity?

As we continuously observe and track customer needs we see the opportunities driven by innovative solutions on the basis of our expertise (products & services around minerals). There are various fields for successful innovation based on our core competencies plant nutrition, water, soil health.

Additionally industrial applications are an important search field for opportunities.

Precision application of Potash was on the agenda of a recent symposium in Rome. Do you think that variable rate application will quickly develop for potash as it has developed with Nitrogen?

Will you put your fingers in this and if so, how?

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L E A D E R ’S P R O F I L E

potassium sulfate, which is used for fertigation of fruit and vegetables, amongst other applications.

Al‑Biariq’s highly modern production facilities on the Red Sea have an annual capacity of 20,000 tonnes (SOP water-soluble), which is set to double to 40,000 tonnes in the near future. As part of the agreement, K+S will in future take over the distribution and marketing of the fertilizers produced by Al-Biariq. In addition, K+S has acquired an option to purchase a further 30% in Al-Biariq within two years of completing the transaction (closing), which is scheduled for the second quarter of 2017.

K+S produces potassium sulfate fertilizers (including KALISOP®) from natural deposits at the Werra site in Hesse. The synthetically manufactured potassium sulfate by Al-Biariq in Saudi Arabia provides a welcome addition to the K+S product range with a fully soluble potassium sulfate, which is primarily used in fertigation. Both purchases follow the management agenda of K+S,

Acquisitions, partnerships?

The more balanced and site specific application is necessary for both economic and environmental reasons. It would be not sufficient to solve that problem just for a single nutrient like potash. Therefore we are working on the topic of nutrient deficiency detection in the Institute of Applied Plant Nutrition at Göttingen University. We think that research is needed in the greenhouse and in the field to find an applicable solution in the near future.

As you know, the traditional thinking about fertilizer advice is being questioned by a number of people and, more importantly by a number of sometimes disrupting technologies.

Among farmers the desire for unbiased advice and a two-way flow of information is growing. The consequence is

strengthen the Group’s competitive position in the area of fertilizer specialties, and serve as important milestones for the expansion in Asia.

OUTLOOK FOR 2017: TANGIBLE INCREASE IN EARNINGS Revenues, operating earnings and EBIT for the K+S Group are expected to increase tangibly in the 2017 fiscal year as compared to the previous year’s values. However, possible production limitations during longer low-water periods in the Werra may lead to significant deviations from this assessment.

that even if the big companies like yours were able to develop the best digital platforms, they will likely struggle to be seen as providers of impartial advice.

What is your answer to this?

Competence in advisory services based on extensive experience is one of K+S’s assets. We are continuously conducting an open dialogue with farmers and organizations in order to understand needs and needs based drivers and barriers and to position ourselves as an impartial partner for all questions of plant nutrition, soil health and water efficiency.

Disruption will take big ideas, new business models and bold people. Is K+S on a search for different types of executives, who would combine knowledge in agronomy with training on disruptive thinking?

Assuming average weather conditions for the rest of the year, significantly higher sales volumes in the Potash and Magnesium Products business unit (2016: 6.1 million tonnes) is anticipated, because the first volumes from Legacy in Canada and Magpower in China are also expected. The average price should increase slightly this year (2016: € 253/t).

MEDIUM-TERM TARGET CONFIRMED In spite of the numerous challenges, K+S remains optimistic to achieve its Group EBITDA target of around €

In fact both is important. We are currently looking for talents who think and act differently, innovate, challenge conventional wisdom, spot trends, see commercial opportunities, and tenaciously find ways to achieve success. These executives will support us in establishing new ways of innovative thinking as a basis for business success.

Do you think that Africa, where fertilizer consumption is very low but fast growing, can be the ideal place to implement these new things, provided they are proven technologies and approaches of course?

We at K+S have been continuously extending our knowledge about Africa since we have started a project “Growth for Uganda” back in 2013. By now, being very well aware of the existing challenges, we strongly believe that digital

1.6 billion in 2020. The ‘Salt 2020’ strategy is on track to reach the EBITDA target of over €400 million, assuming a normal winter. In addition to the Legacy Project, the new market strategy in the Potash and Magnesium Products business unit is expected to contribute to an annual EBITDA of €1.2 billion starting in 2020.

Still, by looking and hearing around him what is happening in the world of agriculture, the management can assess that a revolution is in the pipeline that will affect the way the products of the company are sold, distributed and applied: The 4R campaign initiated and developed by the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI- of which K+S is a member) is a move in the right direction but will not suffice. The new management Team, led by MD Alexa Hergenröther, has put in place a small task force on “new business development” that reports directly to her. What have they got in mind?

Alexa Hergenröther answers. ■

solutions will enable the next leapfrogging development in the agricultural sector in Africa.

Modern technology makes it possible to implement and manage precision fertilization solutions that are not only accustomed to crop needs, but also to changing soil conditions, and this for millions of small holder farmers in subSaharan Africa. In a similar way, technology is also key to closing the knowledge gaps, establishing linkages between agricultural input providers, farmers and potential crop buyers as well as providing market transparency. The resulting efficiency gains are enormous and will enable millions of farmers to lift themselves out of the subsistence agriculture.

Therefore my answer to your question is: not only can it be implemented in Africa, it has to be! And respective solutions can come online sooner than you think – we at K+S are already working on it.

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P R O D U C T S & T R E N D S

How Big Data is Disrupting Agriculture from Biological Discovery to Farming Practice Vonnie Estes, Group Leader, Agricultural and Industrial Biotechnology at Caribou Bioscience in the USA, was a much awaited keynote speaker at the opening session of the Berlin conference. Unfortunately, due to problems of flight cancellations, she could not join on time. However she has agreed to provide a summary of her talk.

A

S POPULATION GROWTH increases the need to ramp up food production, technology is being developed creating a range of agricultural software, services, farming techniques, genetics, and more aimed at bringing more data and efficiency to the sector. This is a shift to increased efficiency, rather than just producing more crops.

Farmers are working smarter than ever before. Smart farming technologies are enabling them to reduce costs, maximize yields and profits, and still be incredibly efficient in the process.

Big improvements in crop production are coming from both biotechnology and big data boosting production by improving the plant from the inside and by controlling and reacting to the environment from the outside.

ment costs. Advantages of new genetic techniques over conventional and earlier transgenic approaches include speed to market, less expensive tools and lab equipment, and lack of transgenes permanently introduced into germplasm. Next gene sequencing has allowed us to sequence and begin to understand and predict the plant genome for improved plant breeding.

Genome-editing technologies such as the CRISPR Cas9 systems show promise for fast improvements, if the precision of genome editing is advanced and the technology is approved and accepted by regulators, producers, and consumers.

CROP IMPROVEMENT THROUGH GENETICS Enhancing plant genetics allows us to give the plant many new traits like disease resistance, better uptake of nutrition, and drought tolerance; all factors crucial in a changing climate. These changes result in fewer and better uses of inputs such as fertilizer, water, and pesticides. Currently there is a convergence of skills, knowledge, and technology that allows us to improve crops at an increasingly fast pace while lowering develop-

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Many small innovative companies have begun to take on this challenge along with many of the major Ag companies. We will need the best innovation strategies from both start-ups and major companies to fund and commercialize the technology.

FOOD SAFETY The food industry is big and complex, heavily scrutinized and already generating a vast amount of data. On the one hand this poses a challenge in the sheer management of data that supply chains generate; but on the other, it offers opportunity, as that data can provide significant insight to the processes involved and allow

those involved in the supply chain to make informed, critical decisions.

The food we eat is often sourced from all over the world and products hit many touchpoints before reaching our plates. As should be expected, a record of the journey needs to take place – so that all products have full traceability and those in the supply chain have full accountability – but the data generated within that record can be vast, especially when you consider that the multitude of sensors and measurement tools are becoming increasingly connected. The revolution of big data technologies has brought with it great potential to make today’s food supply chain

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P R O D U C T S & T R E N D S

safer, more effective, and more sustainable. Big data allows cooperation across the whole supply chain, from growers to retailers who can work together as never before to ensure efficient delivery and food safety. It allows companies to gain the real-time visibility and enable the automated, intelligent actions needed to ensure food is of the highest quality, delivered on time and prepared in optimal settings. These new technologies provide faster, more sensitive, less expensive testing methods critical to the perishable products in the food industry.

Big data will provide valuable insights to how we are managing our food supply and ensure that we are providing a high quality, safe, wholesome products. Areas that are getting the most attention include: • Technology to reduce waste in the supply chain. Forty percent of all food in developed markets is thrown away, with fifteen percent of produce not making it into our mouths.

• Sensors, scanners, and analytics collect the temperature and humidity monitored throughout supply chain for food safety.

• Genomic tools and analytics are used to understand pathogens to predict outbreaks and spread of diseases.

• Point-of-sale scanning promotes quick and effective action on recalls at retail.

DIGITAL AG Digital Ag is defined as technology that increases the efficiency of farms with software, sensors, aerial-based data, internet-based distribution channels, and tools for technology-enabled farming.

Agriculture is the least digitized major industry in U.S. (2015 McKinsey Global Institute). New technology can be used to gather data, analyze information to create insights, and disperse information. A confluence of new tech-

nologies is available and is continuously improving. Sensors are getting better at gathering data.

Drones and autonomous vehicles are getting cheaper and more reliable to collect data for climate, soil, and crop health. New tech-

“Too much money is backing too many platforms and separate applications and sensors. Consolidation will take the best of each and put them into a new model at some point to better serve the industry” VONNIE ESTES, CARIBOU CROPSCIENCES

niques in machine learning and data science are helping ingest the massive datasets and create insights. Phones and mobile internet move information about input costs, commodity values, and inventories across ecosystem to disperse information.

Digital Ag is changing the way farmers farm and the decisions they can make. It brings transparency with visibility of costs, yields, and global market factors across multiple farms, not only their own land. The farmer now has access to information to be the expert, they don’t have to rely on company reps or consultants selling a product. Applications give streamlined work flows to replace spreadsheets and notepads.

Along with all these advantages come problems with adoption and unsolved issues. Too much focus has been on the technology, not

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on value. This sector has been primarily driven by Silicon Valley.

Inventors lack farm experience often causing a disconnect in understanding of the value of a piece of data, how it should be displayed, and how sensitive farmers are about sharing it. Many smart people are working on the new data platforms. It is too early to say if there will be one or many farm data platforms, how they will function, and who will own them.

So far, farmers are hanging back, nervous about disclosing their data, even though it will be anonymous when used in databases. All platforms analyze the same data but no one platform is the best at everything, and they don’t talk to each other. This can often result in the farmer needing to enter data multiple times and a confusing array of unconnected information with no insight. Too much money is backing too many platforms and separate applications and sensors. Consolidation will take the best of each and put them into a new model at some point to better serve the industry.

DISRUPTION OF THE VALUE CHAIN Digital Ag products are used in different parts of the value chain and will disrupt many pain points along the chain.

A farmer connected to a platform with other growers will get greater visibility on product results and pricing transparency across their farms and the farms around them with similar environmental requirements. This will help them decide what to plant, when and how to plant, and what crop inputs to use to maximize harvests and profitability. The current pricing strategies have layers of retailers, dealers, distributors, and major Ag companies. These bundled offerings lack transparency in pricing and it is difficult to tease out individual prices and value of inputs. With various data analyt-

ics, farmers will be able to determine the value individual products. Independent suppliers will be able to provide farmers with unbundled products at competitive prices thereby disrupting the established supply chain.

Understanding these different points of potential disruption will give new companies a place to capture value and reformulate the supply chain altogether while delivering competitively priced products to the farmer.

LOOKING AHEAD: DIGITAL AG HERE TO STAY With so many new companies, new technologies, and disruptive business models, it is hard to predict how these markets will move forward and how farmers will get the most benefit. There are several facts we can be certain of, even if we don’t know exactly how they will play out.

Farming will become increasingly data based. With new sensors and robots, we will continue to get and analyze an increasing amount of data.

The downward trend in prices for robots and automation will lead to increase in use.

Data will have value if they are combined and aggregated driving towards a common platform.

Information on a common platform, with richest data stream, providing the greatest insights will win. There will be much consolidation of all the different applications and sensor companies. This can lead to monopolies. Hopefully there will be collaboration and cooperation along the value chain that will continue to bring disruption from smaller innovative companies. Climate change will cause regulatory changes and focus on new technology-based solutions to drought and flooding.

One thing we know for sure, digital ag is here to stay and will greatly improve our ability to feed a growing and changing planet. ■

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I R R I G AT I O N & F E RT I G AT I O N TECHNOLOGY

Water Saving and Fertigation Technologies:

New smart thinking, new brilliant tools!

The New Ag International Conference has always been a preferred platform for presenting new technologies in fertigation in particular but also in water saving.

Berlin was no exception and the audience was absolutely delighted at what it heard and saw: Plant nutrition people talking water saving and irrigation people talking foliar application of fertilizers and pesticides.

And the pioneers of fertigation entering the world of biostimulants!

The world upside down?

No, a new smart world where brains and technologies interact to come with great solutions.

A

COMPREHENSIVE INTRODUCTION TO THE potential catastrophic future of mankind's life on earth has been delivered by Dr. Kevin Moran, of Kingenta, China, and Norsterra Chemical AS, Norway.

He focused his presentation on the global problem of insufficient irrigation water for agriculture.

The data presented feature a worldwide emergency water situation, but also several ways to alleviate this crisis. The number of water-stressed countries is in a process of growth from 28 in year 2000, to 52 between 2030 and 2040. The current Global Risk Report indicates that within just 10 years from now, the incidence of profound social instability, food crises and extreme weather events will grow by some 2426%. However, the odds of failure to mitigate climate change are as high as 37%, and the chances to lessen a severe water crisis are as high as 40%. To avoid or reduce

these severe developments, a major step must be taken, by diverting really large amounts of current irrigation water, to other uses like domestic, municipal and industrial applications. The largest volumes will be needed in China, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, and rest of Asia. Calculation shows that mere saving of 15% in agricultural water inputs, would double the water volume for domestic use. The lions' share of this water shifting can be gained by taking it from areas irrigated by surface flooding, which is practiced in ~88% of worldwide irrigated hectares, although it is the most wasteful irrigation method, featuring WUE (water-use-efficiency) in the range of 30-37%. And the said cut does not mean that these hectares must be dried up, they should be rather shifted from flood irrigation to sprinklers (WUE=60%), mechanized- (WUE=65%) or micro- irrigation (WUE=85%).

Figure 1: The near future of water-soluble fertilizers in China

Once modern irrigation methods are adopted, the road is open for further achievements in terms of enhanced WUE, by optimizing crops mineral nutrition, through adding the appropriate rates of secondary-, and micronutrients to the crops' management. The optimal way of doing so is by applying the required nutrients in the form of fully water-soluble fertilizers.

The application of these highly beneficial fertilizers can be further optimized by applying them by fertigation and/or foliar feeding, whose current shares are 85% and 13%, respectively. This concept is now well accepted throughout the world, by all soil-, and watering- science professionals. As a clear proof to the validity of this perception, figure 1 demonstrates the process of current booming of water-soluble fertilizers in China, which is the largest agricultural market. It shows growth at a CAGR=17% just between 2012 and 2020. Dr. Moran has no doubt that this trend will be also realized in many other parts of the world.

H2FLOÂŽ: A SURFACTANT FORMULATION FOR IMPROVED YIELD AND WATER USE EFFICIENCY An important presentation that directly touched upon the central issue of water saving, was delivered by Mr. Mike Finney, of ICL Specialty Fertilizers, UK. Macro data, sourced from FAO, indicate that global irrigated harvestable crops presently occupy over 346 million hectares, and about 40

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I R R I G AT I O N & F E RT I G AT I O N TECHNOLOGY

million ha of which, use for growing various fruits and vegetables.

Similar hectarage of irrigated land is found in arid-, and hyper-arid regions, and the prospective is that due to the worldwide desertification process, this figure could grow to 43 million ha in 2050.

“Once modern irrigation methods are adopted, the road is open for further achievements in terms of enhanced WUE, by optimizing crops mineral nutrition, through adding the appropriate rates of secondary-, and micronutrients to the crops' management.”

DR KEVIN MORAN, NOSTERRA

The fact that agriculture currently accounts for about 70% of the freshwater withdrawals in the world, is usually considered as one of the main factors behind the increasing global scarcity of freshwater for human consumption. These figures, coupled with the projected growth of human population, to the colossal figure of over 9 billion people by 2050, means that agriculture MUST become more efficient in terms of water usage.

One of the reasons for irrigation inefficiency is the fact that water has an electrically polar molecule,

which tends by definition to come in close contact with materials of the same nature. But soils frequently contain non-polar, or even hydrophobic ingredients. This situation is very prevalent in sandy soils, as they normally contain less than 5% of clay, which is a polar substance by nature. Decomposition of hydrophobic waxy materials, originating from plant residues, can coat soil particles.

This is the case in arable pasture and grain legumes such as clover, medic, lucerne (alfalfa), and lupins, which contain higher amounts of plant waxes. Fungi can also produce water repellent residues, particularly under perennial pastures such as alfalfa.

Therefore, newly cleared agricultural land, and native landscapes will commonly show water repellence. The presence of waterrepellent substances, will hence prevent the infiltration of water into the soil profile. Irrigation water can remain ponded on the soil surface, to be evaporated, or lost by runoff, or become unevenly distributed in the soil profile, which leads to patchy and uneven plant emergence.

The generic solution to such problems has been developed long ago, and is currently utilized in foliar applications of pesticides, fungicides and nutrients, and implies mixing of a very small amount of surface-active com-

pounds to the carrying water. In our terminology, these materials are called adjuvants, and they are in extensive usage in the said industries, and they often come as part of the concentrated product.

But in the case of irrigation there is no concentrated product, so it should be applied to the irrigation water itself. And this is indeed, the

Figure 2: A scheme of YARA's plant water sensor

novelty ICL is offering now.

"H2Flo®" is a blend of non-ionic surfactants. It is safe to plants, biodegradable within 4-5 weeks, and compatible with fertilizers.

The end-result of applying it to the irrigation water is markedly reduced surface tension of the irrigation water, which, in turn improves vertical and lateral movement of water in the soil, maximizing the efficacy of irrigation water, enabling the reduction of the application rates of the water, and enhanced yields. Best field results have been actually obtained in sandy and loamy soils, which show water repellence

Photo 1: Improved surface penetration by usage of H2Flo® Two situations, immediately after an irrigation session

Untreated soil water repellence

issues, especially, where micro / drip fertigation is used, see photo 1, and in the ever growing situations, where water quantity and quality are limiting factors.

Using H2Flo®, in an asparagus field in France was done by injecting the product into the water source. This treatment allowed 20% reduction in water applica-

H2Flo® treated, improved surface penetration

tion. It showed again increased lateral and vertical movement of water into the soil, stimulating the root system growth, which in turn increased the marketable yield by 16%, and enhancing by 6% the share of the 22+ caliber spears, which commands best market prices. The economic advantage of this treatment, versus the grower's practice is a net additional income of 2,413 €/ha. A control treatment of 20% reduction in water application without applying H2Flo®, produced a net loss of 94 €/ha. The product was applied at 1.2 L/ha with first irrigation, and at 0.15 L/ha for every further application, and the total cost of applying the novel product was just 65 €/ha.

Using H2Flo®, in a starch potato field in Sweden was done by spraying it onto the soil throughout the season, without cutting on water application. This treatment increased the total potato yield by 8.4%, and the starch yield- by 11%. In this case the product application costs were two-fold those of the asparagus

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R E G I O N A L R E P O R T

From tradition to Precision Ag in Germany Germany was the host of the 15th New Ag International Conference and we had the opportunity to know about the status of implementation of Precision Ag (PA) in this country from the hand of Dr Frank Lorenz (agronomist and researcher at the Agricultural Analytic Research Institute-LUFA, Oldenburg, Germany).

Agricultural land in Germany represents 52% of the total country area, with arable land and grassland accounting for 98% of agricultural land uses.

As in other European countries, there are social and environmental concerns about the effects of agriculture in different aspects such as animal welfare, biodiversity, nitrates in groundwater, eutrophication, ammonia and other greenhouse gas emissions.

To care about that and keep their land in good agricultural and environmental conditions, farmers receive single farm payments and it is here were PA technologies are starting to play a role.

ONE MAY KNOW GERMANY as a country of mechanical engineering. This is true, but only part of the truth. The second largest sector in terms of gross return next to mechanical engineering is the food chain, which means the farmers, the food industry and the food retailers. The total annual revenue amounts to 160 bn € with 4.5 million people earning their living in this sector. One of the reasons is that Germany is in fact a farming country. More than half of the land is farmed, and another 30% are forests which belong also to farmers, to private people and to the government.

That means that more than 80% of the country is cultivated.

Germany is in the lucky situation that in most years there is enough rainfall during the growing season in most parts of the country. This is why it is having the highest wheat yields in the world, together with the North of France, the South of the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands. The same counts for rape, potatoes and sugar beet.

NITROGEN: THE MOST NEEDED NUTRIENT AND THE MOST PROBLEMATIC ONE! With all the animal residues and including compost, sewage sludge, and the like, the country theoretically covers already 90% of the nitrogen, 71% of the phosphorus and 76% of the potassium required by the crops.

There is still a considerable need for mineral fertiliser nitrogen since the efficiency of the organic nitrogen is still low. One can see that from the overall efficiency of nitro-

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“The differences between East and West are clearly visible.

The average size of a West German farm of today is 47 ha, while in the East, it amounts to the fivefold, 252 ha. The reunion and the opening of the borders to the East boosted the German agricultural machinery industry like no other event in history.”

DR FRANK LORENZ

gen from animal manures and mineral fertilizers together which equals about less than 50%.

Another reason of course is that livestock farming is not equally distributed over Germany – there are hotspots where more animal manure is applied per hectare than in pure arable regions.

Nevertheless, the application rates of phosphorus and potassium are rather small on average. Preferred crops for P and K are row crops like sugar beet, potatoes, corn and special cultures like vegetables.

So which ones of the essential nutrients have to be fertilized in German

farming? The first of all is nitrogen.

Because in most parts of the country precipitation exceeds evaporation, nitrogen has to be applied annually to all crops. Since sulphur is no longer exhausted by industrial plants, it has become a fertilizer must, too, since sulfate is also leached. Phosphorous, potassium, magnesium and lime are usually applied once in a crop rotation, preferably to the row crops.

Micronutrients like manganese, boron, copper and zinc are provided abundantly by the animal manures.

There is a need in crops susceptible to deficiency like boron in maize and sugar beet or manganese in barley. Iron and molybdenum are almost never needed, in contrast to many other parts of the world.

In fact, since 2004, the nitrogen surplus oscillates around 100 kg/ha, and it takes a big effort to bring it further down. There are quite a lot of areas in Germany with too high levels of nitrate in the groundwater. Groundwater is the main source for drinking water in Germany – about 85% of it is produced from groundwater. Water is qualified as a food in Germany – the most secure food one can imagine. Germany is prosecuted by the EU because it has not been able to meet the goals of the EU nitrate directive. A revised fertilizer ordinance will be brought into force in 2017, and it is not yet clear if it is able to solve the problems.

THE IDEAL TESTING GROUND FOR PRECISION AG Germany still faces the different field sizes and patterns from the former East and West parts of the

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R E G I O N A L R E P O R T

country. In the West, the average size of farms is about 47 ha while in the East it is 252 ha. This is because land was socialized in the

East and private in the West.

Because of that, and also due to soil variability in the country, “Germany is the ideal testing

ground for Precision Ag”. Farmers have online tools to know water demand in irrigation systems and nitrogen demand for specific

Figure 1: The German Soil Taxation taxes fields according to the production potential of soils. It is based on detailed soil maps, which constitute an important database for Precision Ag purposes.

Figure 2: Different smart farming approaches to integrate information for decision making in Precision Ag used in Germany.

crops, such as wheat. These tools integrate soil information collected by the German Soil Taxation, which today constitutes an important database for PA at field scale.

Satellites are expected to be a key technology for the mass market in Germany. However, at present, “useful information for agriculture from satellite images is mostly available for experts only, since the collection and analysis of data are costly and complicated” although the Sentinel missions are reducing the gap. The AGRO-DE project, by a consortium participated by the Julius Kühn-Institut, the German Aerospace Center and the companies EOMAP and Hanse-Agro, will try to overcome these constrains in the near future. It will create a data and analysis cluster to allow farmers, agricultural consultants, contractors and service providers, to use pre-processed remote sensing information in a timely manner and to integrate them into their operations. Dr. Lorenz also presented other tools already implemented in Germany for Precision Ag, such as PROMET, MOFATO, slurry nutrient assessment via NIRS or Farm Management Information Systems - FMIS).

Nevertheless, German agriculture will have to overcome some drawbacks for a faster implementation of PA, since some constrains still exist: broadband not available everywhere on the countryside, interface problems between machines and software, too many competing FMIS, advantages still unclear to many farmers, neutral advice questionable or fear of data misuse. ■

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AG RO N O M I C S & ECONOMICS

Foliar Fertilization enters a new era The opening keynote in the plant nutrition session in Berlin was given by Prof Ismail Cakmak, Sabanci University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey. For the first time in 15 conferences, two topics were covered: Iodine fertilization and the relationship between plant nutrition and human health; Increase in usage of novel foliar fertilizers is now also aiming at improving nutritional value of food crops. Foliar fertilization has entered a new era.

“It can be stated that fertilizer strategy is a highly promising approach in increasing dietary concentrations of nutrients in food crops at desirable level to contribute to human nutrition and health. Today, the link between mineral fertilization of food crops and human health is becoming increasingly stronger.”

PROF CAKMAK

ENSURING BETTER NUTRITION OF CROP PLANTS THROUGH FOLIAR FERTILIZATION Foliar application of mineral nutrients is an additional and complementary approach used in mineral fertilization of crop plants, especially in case of micronutrients.

Demand for a foliar spray of mineral nutrients is often associated with existence of adverse soil and climatic conditions. Top soil drying is a common problem in many cropping systems, especially during the late growth stage which may limit the root capacity to use and absorb effectively mineral nutrients existing in the top soil.

Similarly, sub-soil deficiency of nutrients represents a further soil condition which may also contribute to an impaired mineral nutrition of crop plants.

Insufficient distribution of certain mineral nutrients, such as boron and calcium, within plants due to their very low mobility in phloem may result in a deficiency of those

nutrients in the generative organs or in fast-growing organs (i.e., shoot tips, seeds), even despite of their high concentration in fullyexpanded leaves. Under such conditions, foliar spray of nutrients might be an effective agronomic practice to ensure better mineral nutrition of plants and avoid unexpected impairments in growth and yield capacity of plants.

Hidden deficiency of nutrients in crop plants is commonly reported which may depress yield capacity of plants up to 10 to 15% without appearance of visible deficiency symptoms of the corresponding nutrients. The problem with hidden deficiency of nutrients usually occurs in high yielding cropping systems and imbalanced nutrition programmes. To avoid the risk with hidden deficiency of mineral nutrients in plants foliar spray of nutrients would be a useful strategy. A good example for hidden deficiency is magnesium deficiency that is often induced by i) high potassium fertilization, ii) cropping of high yielding cultivars, iii) impaired root uptake of magnesium from soils, especially in acid and aluminum rich-soils and iv) and also exposure of plants to heat and high radiation (high light intensity). Magnesium is known to have stress-mitigating effects in plants, especially against heat and high light intensity.

Pictures 1 and 2 show that a foliar spray of soluble magnesium fertil-

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izers such as magnesium sulphate, MgSO4. 7H2O, effectively correct magnesium deficiency chlorosis and contribute to better seed-filling with assimilates.

Magnesium represents a key player in the phloem loading of assimilates and their transportation into seeds. Maintenance of a good magnesium nutritional status of plants during the late growth stage is of great importance for ensuring sufficient transportation of assimilates from leaves into seeds, fruits or tubers.

FOLIAR FERTILIZATION FOR FIGHTING MALNUTRITION Micronutrient deficiencies (known as “Hidden Hunger”) are also well-documented problems in human populations. Hidden Hunger is the particular form of malnutrition problems in the world. Around two billion people are affected from micronutrient

deficiencies including zinc, iodine and iron deficiencies. Hidden Hunger is mainly caused by high consumption of plant-based foods (especially cereals) with low micronutrient concentrations. Due to widespread occurrence of Hidden Hunger problem globally, in recent years there is also an increasing interest in development of novel foliar micronutrient fertilizers in order to improve nutritional value of the edible parts of the food crops, such as seeds/grains, in terms of micronutrients.

Cereals and other grain food crops are usually very low in micronutrients, particularly iodine and zinc. For example, cereal grains usually contain about 10 µg iodine per kg that is far too low to meet the daily needs of iodine, especially in the developing world, where cereals are extensively consumed. In case of

Picture 1: wheat plants gown with adequate magnesium (in form of MgSO4.

7H2O) in growth medium (left), with low magnesium (middle) and with low magnesium but treated foliarly with MgSO4. 7H2O (right).

Picture: A. Yazici and I. Cakmak, unpublished.

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AG RO N O M I C S & ECONOMICS

EFFICIENT FERTILIZATION PELLETS Picture 2: wheat seeds harvested from the plants gown with low magnesium in growth medium (left), with adequate magnesium (middle) and with low magnesium in growth medium but treated foliarly with MgSO4. 7H2O (right).

Source: Ceylan et al. 2016, Plant and Soil, 406:145-156

consumption of 400 gram cereal based foods (i.e., bread), the contribution of cereals to daily iodine intake would be around 4 μg that is too low to meet human iodine nutrition because the reported daily iodine requirement of humans is 150 μg. Among all micronutrient deficiencies, iodine deficiency is a particular one because it also occurs significantly in well-developed countries, especially in children (see the world map of iodine deficiency).

An increasing number of published reports is available showing that maintenance of high pool of micronutrients in the vegetative tissue during the reproductive growth stage is required to achieve desirable concentrations of micronutrients in grains for

human nutrition. Field experiments conducted in different countries under the HarvestZinc project (www.harvestzinc.org) on wheat and rice, demonstrated that foliar spray of micronutrients including zinc and iodine results in substantial increases in concentrations of those micronutrients both in whole grain and endosperm part. In a further study supported by SQM, Nestle and IFA, foliar spray of iodine containing fertilizers was found to be highly effective in increasing grain iodine concentrations in wheat, rice and maize. Spraying potassium iodate (KIO3) up to the rate of 0.05 % w/v twice is suggested to be a suitable form and rate to be used in agronomic biofortification of cereals with iodine. ■

Organic improvement KƌŐĂŶŝĐ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

GRANULES KƌŐĂŶŽ ŵŝŶĞƌĂů ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

Micro granules starters Mini granules starters used in grassland DŝŶĞƌĂů ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

^ůŽǁ ƌĞůĞĂƐĞ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

,ƵŵŝĐ ĂĐŝĚƐ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

LIQUIDS EƵƚƌŝƟŽƵƐ ůŝƋƵŝĚ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

>ŝƋƵŝĚ ĨŽůŝĂƌ EW< ͬ d

>ŝƋƵŝĚ ƌĂǁ ŵĂƚĞƌŝĂůƐ

&ůŽǁĞƌƐ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

>ŝƋƵŝĚ ŽƌŐĂŶŝĐ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

^ĞĂǁĞĞĚƐ ďĂƐĞĚ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

Humic and fulvic acids >ŝƋƵŝĚ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ ďĂƐĞĚ ŽŶ ĂŵŝŶŽ ĂĐŝĚƐ

t d Zͳ^K>h > ^ŽůƵďůĞ ĨĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

WŽǁĚĞƌ ĨŽůŝĂƌ EW< ͬ d

Soluble raw materials Humic and fulvic acids

GEL tĂƚĞƌ ^ŽůƵďůĞ 'Ğů &ĞƌƟůŝnjĞƌƐ

TRACE ELEMENTS

ué en Fra riq

Figure 1: Iodine deficiency in school children based on urinary data collected.

Source: FAO, 2013. The state of Food and agriculture. Food systems for better nutrition.

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Separated, Ferric and Blended dƌĂĐĞ ůĞŵĞŶƚƐ

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