Weather Wise

The first thing most growers do in the morning is check the weather. And for good reason: Weather conditions have a huge impact on crop health and yield. Abiotic stress on plants, the effects of nonliving factors, such as heat, wind and rain, may not receive as much attention as damage from insects, weeds and diseases, but it represents more than $200 billion in annual crop losses globally¹, making it one of the largest challenges for the agricultural industry to address.

Though Syngenta has discussed how its products promote plant performance benefits for years, the company expanded its capabilities and activities in abiotic stress management in 2011. The foundation of these activities has been a strong research and development program that studies the physiological effects of environmental stresses, wind, drought, sunlight, hail and soil health, on plants, with the aim of identifying how technology can better protect the plant and promote yield.

"Plants are overreactors," says Eric Tedford, Ph.D., Syngenta technical lead for fungicides. "They stress more than they need to. So how do you stop them from doing that? And unless you're clairvoyant, how do you know when it's going to happen?"

When a Fungicide is More Than a Fungicide

Syngenta is actively looking for the answers to these questions and testing potential solutions in its portfolio. For example, Tedford has seen in trials and actual commercial fields how Quilt Xcel^® fungicide can help mitigate abiotic stress in corn.

"When we first developed this fungicide, we immediately saw how much greener the plants were," he says. "But we had this great broad-spectrum chemistry, and we didn't want to dilute the message by talking about greening and vigor."

Since then, Syngenta has done considerable research that demonstrates the beneficial physiological responses that some plants experience following treatment with Quilt Xcel. "The plants stay greener longer," Tedford says. "They also are relieved of stresses from heat and drought conditions, and they utilize water more efficiently."

Eager to see if these benefits would translate into higher yields, Syngenta conducted corn field trials, in which Tedford saw yield increases of 10 to 15 bushels per acre. But, he notes, yield is only one of the benefits that these fungicides can bring to growers.

Quilt Xcel also can improve stalk quality, which reduces lodging and allows corn to stand longer and dry down properly. In 2014, J.R. Peterson, Syngenta district manager in Northern Iowa, applied the fungicide to corn at the V5 and R1 growth stages on his family farm. As a result, he reduced his drying costs by $60 to $75 per acre. "These savings alone paid for the costs of the fungicide," he says.

Syngenta also did a study on lodging in cornfields and found that corn treated with Quilt Xcel had 22 percent less lodging than untreated corn. In this study, the combine was able to harvest the corn treated with Quilt Xcel 1.7 miles per hour faster than the untreated corn.

When put into university agronomic models, the fuel, labor and wear-and-tear savings added up to $14 per acre. Reduced lodging also means less seed is returned to the field, which reduces volunteer corn in soybean or wheat crops that may follow.

Breeding for Less Stress

Along with chemistry, Syngenta is also making advances in abiotic-stress mitigation through new genetics. In 2012, drought in the U.S. caused crop losses of almost $23 billion², and drought conditions plagued more than 30 percent of the contiguous U.S. as of November 2014³. Gaps in rainfall and water limitations can take a toll on yields during any season. Therefore, finding ways to help growers manage available water more effectively is a critical need.

Commercially launched in the U.S. in 2012, Agrisure Artesian^® corn hybrids contain multiple genes for season-long water-optimization characteristics, which are robustly screened across managed-stress environments, allowing plants to optimize the use of available water and respond to water stress at virtually any stage of growth. In 2014, these water-optimized hybrids were planted on 1 million acres, with that number expected to increase in 2015, and for good reason.

Trials show that Artesian^™ hybrids increase yields by 13.7 percent in severe to extreme water-stress conditions. Syngenta defines a yield environment of 50 to 99 bushels per acre as severe and fewer than 50 bushels per acre as extreme. The defensive benefits of Artesian hybrids are most obvious under extreme water stress, having yielded 40 percent more than the plot average in trials during the past four years. However, they also match or exceed the yield of comparable hybrids when growing conditions are optimal. That gives growers who choose to plant these hybrids peace of mind, knowing that whether it rains or not, they can achieve top-end yields.

Integrated Solutions

Elite genetics from Syngenta are an integral part of a larger, integrated solution that brings water-optimization benefits to growers' fields. One area of focus has been irrigated corn acres in the U.S., says Chris Tingle, head of water optimization at Syngenta. In these fields, research shows that with the right combination of seed and crop protection products, used according to protocols that optimize water, growers can yield more with up to 25 percent less water than their standard programs with full irrigation in place.

Syngenta tapped into these findings to formulate Water+^™ Intelligent Irrigation Platform, an integrated solution that brings together market-leading agronomic products, irrigation technologies and services from Syngenta and Lindsay Corporation, a leading provider of irrigation systems.

"This solution will help farmers grow more corn using less water, which, in turn, will help them make more money," says Tingle. "That's a pretty compelling offer."

The Future of Farming

Syngenta researchers continue to work on new solutions that will give growers more certainty when unpredictable weather hits. The company has created a dedicated global business, called Crop Enhancement, that is working to break new ground in this area with innovative discoveries. These scientific breakthroughs, combined with technologies already available, have the potential to not only provide a better return on investment for individual farms, but they also can help address serious challenges facing our planet both now and in the future. In 2020, due to the world's growing population, roughly 2.5 acres of land will need to feed more than five people, compared to 1960, when the same amount of land only had to feed two people⁴.

As part of The Good Growth Plan, Syngenta is committed to increasing the average productivity of the world's major crops by 20 percent, without using more land, water or inputs. That means the pressure is on to enable plants to yield more, while also using resources more efficiently.

"What's really exciting is that we are developing novel solutions that are allowing the plant to withstand stress," says Aron Silverstone, product biology lead for abiotic stress at Syngenta. "These technologies will be game-changers because they're different from what anyone else is doing, and they will allow us to fine-tune how the plant grows and how it responds to stress."

¹Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2011 report
²Syngenta, "Our Industry 2014" report
³National Climatic Data Center
⁴Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations