MainDB: Providing seed treatment for more efficient resource use

Title: Providing seed treatment for more efficient resource use
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NWPTypeOfOrganization: Private sector
NWPGeographicRegion: Africa; Asia; Caribbean and Central America; Europe; North America; Pacific/Oceania; South America
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Adaptation element: Adaptation planning and practices; Capacity building; Education and training; Impact assessment; Knowledge management; Science and research; Technology support
Adaptation sector/theme: Agriculture; Food security; Water resources; Biodiversity; Disaster risk reduction
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NWPDataSource: PSI
Description: Bayer CropScience develops innovative technologies and solutions for sustainable land management approaches. A holistic approach to land and climate change management includes ecosystem health and water conservation. In the future, there will be an even greater need for practical measures to adapt to weather-based climate change effects and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For Bayer CropScience, the challenge is to anticipate the potential future technology needs of farmers.
 
Two technologies are currently in the pipeline:
Stress-tolerant plant varieties that help plants adapt to short term abiotic stress, such as drought, salinity, heat, or cold; and
Nitrogen use-efficient varieties that will help mitigate one of the most potent GHGs: nitrous oxide (N2O).
 
Today’s healthy and more vigorous plants are already much more resilient and hence adaptable to climate change effects. They produce more biomass and store more carbon than plants whose potential remains unexploited. Worldwide the health of crops is threatened by about 25,000 pests and diseases. A success story in crop protection is found through seed treatment, which restricts product use to individual seeds and especially protects the young vulnerable plants “from within”.
 
This technology also contributes to:
Water use reduction;
Labor time and cost savings;
Ecosystem benefits, as application is directly targeted towards the pests;
Higher biomass production (carbon storage) from healthier plants; and
Eco-efficiency, including mitigation from reduced tractor operations
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NWPInformationType: Case study
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NWPPartner: Bayer AG
Purpose: Bayer has developed seed treatments that have proven over many years that early protection pays off. This case study shows how protecting individual seeds from diseases and pests during their early development stage saves water, the labor time and costs and increases the ability of healthier plants to absorb more carbon.
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Target group: Practitioners; Private sector
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NWPOutcome: From an ecosystem’s health perspective, seed treatment holds many benefits. It is a highly targeted way of applying crop protection products: instead of an area of one hectare, only less than 1% of it comes into contact with the product. The treatment only controls insects and pathogens that suck sap from the plants, eat them or damage them by an infestation. Hence, beneficial species that live on and around the plants are protected, an aspect that is widely considered in integrated crop management approaches. Seed treatment, when used properly, also avoids drift to adjacent plants, headlands, and water bodies and consequently protects non-target species inhabiting these areas. Seed treatment is done in specialized facilities. 


As the seeds carry much of their own protection for the first two to three months of their lives, up to two pesticide spray applications can be avoided. Therefore about 200 liters of water, which are used on average to apply crop protection products on one hectare of land, are no longer needed, Seed treatment is also economical for farmers as it saves a lot of labor time and costs. Many large- and small-holder farmers alike prefer seed treatment as it frees up time during a busy period of the year. This gives them time to pursue other important activities, including income-generating ones in other sectors.

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NWPReferences: Tackling climate change on the ground: http://www.wbcsd.org/Pages/EDocument/EDocumentDetails.aspx?ID=136&NoSearchContextKey=true
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Created at 21/04/2016 11:46 by Roberto Felix
Last modified at 04/05/2022 22:00 by Nicholas Hamp-Adams
 
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