Corteva zeros in on biologicals with new product launch

The company has recently released Utrisha N, the first in a promised suite of new biological products.

A granulated product, Utrisha N enhances a naturally occurring process that allows a plant to absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it to ammonium to boost nutrition and yields.

It can be used on all plants, including cereals, canola, and horticultural crops.

The product, a symbiotic bacteria, utilises naturally occurring Methylobacteria and has been developed into a sprayable form that only needs to be applied to annual crops once.

It enters the leaf through the stomata and colonises the plant allowing it to absorb atmospheric nitrogen and convert it to ammonium (NH4+).

Corteva Agriscience commercial unit leader - Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand Asia Pacific, Kent Davies, said Utrisha represented the company's first foray into the biological space.

"Globally, Corteva recognises that there's an appetite for more sustainable solutions and we see biologicals as a really fantastic complement to traditional crop protection products and also to our our seed business as well," Mr Davies said.

"We see it as part of the part of the future."

THE traditionally long lead time to get new agrichemical products to market may not be as lengthy when it comes to biologicals.

According to Mr Davies, while all the testing and certification still needs to be done, biologicals are a little bit more smoother.

"We're able to sort of streamline it a little bit in terms of bringing it to market," he said.

"But again, with with all the rigor of that conditional research and development brackets."

Corteva Agriscience is investing heavily into the biologicals space. That should benefit Australian producers.

"From an Australia perspective I think there's a really strong appetite for new biological solutions," Mr Davies said.

"But again, we're not going to rush it. We will do the the due diligence, we'll do the the evaluations, but certainly we have intentions to expand this portfolio."

It has been just over a year since the company acquired microbiological technologies firm Symborg, as well as one of the largest independent companies in the biologicals industry, Stoller.

THERE have been nearly a hundred trials conducted in Australia with Utrisha N.

"There have been really compelling results across the whole range of crops from broadacre to horticulture, seeing significant benefits in yields and giving benefits and quality," Mr Davies said.

From here, it is about getting the product out and into the hands of growers, according to Mr Davies.

As consumers become more aware of the journey their food takes, the entire supply chain gets put in focus.

Mr Davies said it was an area that would continue to evolve.

"I think the granularity and the the traceability will continue to become more and more prevalent," he said.

"Certainly Corteva is well aware of it and and has been investing in it and we'll be in a position to ensure that we're adopting some of that technology to be able to give consumers, growers, society that information that they're they're looking for."

Providing that traceability and assurance comes at a monetary cost though.

"It's not insignifiant in terms of the investment that's needed," he said.

"We continue to work with with the industry, with industry bodies on what that solution looks like going forward and hopefully we can be part of defining what that solution is versus being regulated into something that maybe is not necessarily what what everyone's after."

IT'S unlikely growers will abandon ship on their current products in order to instantly take up something new.

That fact is not lost on Mr Davies, who said this is where the complementary nature of Utrisha N comes in.

"We've got a number of things in the pipeline but I think there's certainly a place for traditional crop protection chemistry as well as complementing that with biologicals," he said.

Utrisha N has one use rate across almost all crops, adding to its simplicity of use.

He said apart from nutrient efficiency, another area of biologicals could be pesticides. He said growers would benefit from having an array of options to call on.

"The whole farm enterprise, it's truly a business. They've got to look at it from end to end," Mr Davies said.

Things such as input costs and investment returns have to be balanced against sustainability goals and environmental impacts, he said.

"The portfolio that we've got coming will help to move the needle in terms of aggressive sustainability," he said.

"Everything that we've got in our pipeline meets our sustainability criteria and which is based on the UN sustainability criteria."

Utrisha will also be released in Japan this year.