This global award recognises the use of plant biostimulants (PBS) in farming practices. “We strongly fee that sustainable practices should get rewarded. Those nominated and of course the winner represents a role model for others, a positive example to be followed,” said Valagro when announcing the competition. A judging panel was assembled, and a scoring-criteria used for each of the questions answered by the entries. Each entry was marked “blind” by each judge and a score allocated. The 2021 Farmer’s Award winner was Valdivia Sousa, from Agrícola Famosa S/A in Brazil.
In a recorded thank you message, she said:
Winner FARMER’S AWARD 2021 Valdívia Sousa Plant Nutrition Technical Manager
Hello, I start by greeting everyone who is participating in the 2021 Biostimulants Congress. I want to thank, on behalf of Agrícola Famosa, the Farmer's Award for the use of Biostimulants and Innovation. It is an honour for a Brazilian company, the largest exporter of melon and watermelon in the world. So, I am pretty sure many of you have already tasted the Famosa's fruit. And having this recognition for us, who have always invested in technology and innovation, is the crowning achievement of 25 years of work. The use of biostimulants at Agrícola Famosa has helped us to face difficulties in our region, such as salinity and low soil fertility, and certainly the use of this technology helps us to have greater productivity and quality of our fruits. So, I want to wish everyone a good congress and thank you again for the award.
There was the Innovation Award on day one, which went to Agri Technovation for their Picklogger tool; and on day two it went to Verdesian Life Sciences for their biostimulant technology. Runners up included Plant di Tech and Innovak Global, with both companies receiving recognition. The Picklogger tool was presented by Erik de Vries, chairman of Agri Technovation. The company manufactures the Picklogger, except the scissor element, Erik de Vries told New AG International. By linking the position of the picker in the field with specific boxes of picked fruit, it is possible to track to the tree. Before it was only really possible to track to the orchard, said de Vries. Verdesian Life Sciences’s Technical Development Manager Pavel Wiatrak gave a presentation at the Congress. New AG International asked Wiatrak some of the key messages from presentation: “We have biostimulants that can help influence or make more phosphorus available to plants. We don’t want to over fertilize; we know 20% of phosphorus applied is utilised, so very little. So 80% is not utilised. With the application of the biostimulant with the fertilizer we can improve the efficiency of the phosphorus, we can make more phosphorus available to the plant, and we can improve the growth of plant.”
Poster award There was a scientific poster exhibition, with a total of 92 on display. The winner of the poster competition was Stefano Ambrosini, PhD student at the University of Verona, Italy, and he was awarded a cheque for $500.
New AG International caught up with Stefano, congratulated him on his award, and asked him to summarise his research. Please can you summarise the main points from your poster? My presentation dealt with the biostimulant effects of a collagen derived protein hydrolysate. The product is able to chelate Fe and favourably modulate some key genes connected to Fe nutrition improving maize and cucumber recovery from Fe chlorosis. Moreover, to discover the bioactive compound(s) of the matrix, we performed a liquid chromatography fractionation, proved the fractions to be effective in stimulating root growth, and a further characterization led us to the synthesis of a bioactive peptide found in the compound that has the same biostimulant effect on root growth. How do you think your research can benefit the biostimulants industry? Discovering what are the bioactive compounds is a great starting point to ameliorate the products formulation or to suggest a different mode of application on crops. Furthermore, there is a chance to give some hints on where to look for new products that might contain those compounds. Lastly, it is a way to better present the product to the market and to place it in the regulatory framework.
Finally, what are the next steps for your research? In these years of prosperous scientific publications on plant biostimulants, it is crucial to increase our efforts to better characterize the compounds we are studying on a molecular level. The mechanism(s) of action must be elucidated with all the tools we have at our disposal, in a multi and interdisciplinary approach. We are now conducting a rigorous characterization of the protein hydrolysate to understand whether one or a class of peptides can be ascribable as root-growth promoters. ●
Agri Technovation, Picklogger tool
Stefano Ambrosini, Professor Patrick Brown, Professor Patrick du Jardin
