BASF Unveils Coming Seed Treatments at 2008 World Seed Congress
To develop these new-generation SeedSolutions, BASF has sought to transfer proprietary research results and innovative technologies from areas as diverse as automotive coatings, textile chemicals and vitamin capsules to seed treatments.
28/05/08 Visitors to the 2008 World Seed Congress this week in Prague will gain first-hand insight into BASF’s next-generation seed treatments. Just five years after building up its seed treatment research and development facilities, the company is coming out with several new proprietary products that offer customers best protection, extra vitality as well as leading-edge technology.
To develop these new-generation SeedSolutions, BASF has sought to transfer proprietary research results and innovative technologies from areas as diverse as automotive coatings, textile chemicals and vitamin capsules to seed treatments. New pigments originally developed by BASF for the textile industry, for example, have been tailored to meet seed industry specifications. With the support of BASF’s Verbund polymer research, the company’s SeedSolutions laboratories are designing seed treatment formulations that can release the active ingredient slowly over time. Another example: Expertise in adjuvants has allowed SeedSolutions researchers to improve flowability and reduce dusting.
“Of course, our customers want the best fungicide or insecticide in the market, but they also want a complete solution,” said Hans J. Lutz, Director Seed Treatment, Global Strategic Marketing at BASF Crop Protection. “As part such complete solutions. When we say SeedSolutions” adds Lutz, “we at BASF mean best protection, extra vitality and leading-edge technology. Taken together, this means minimizing risk and maximizing returns against a backdrop of rising seed value.”
SeedSolutions is harnessing the power of Plant Health for its seed treatment products. “Stamina with F 500 is the first in the new generation of BASF seed treatment products that the company will be launching globally over the next couple of years,” said Lutz. In the United States, where the product was recently registered, growers are planting corn earlier due to brisk demand and high commodity prices. They can improve their yields with Stamina because our product not only protects the seedling against fungal disease but also makes it more resistant to frost.
BASF’s next-generation SeedSolutions will contain active ingredients such as F 500, the active ingredient in Headline and Opera, as well as boscalid and fipronil, which also show promising yield and quality advantages in addition to superior disease and insect control. BASF is and will continue to be at the forefront of this new area of scientific discovery, by transferring these benefits to its SeedSolutions.
