How to avoid productivity losses in winter

We are approaching the dry period of the year, where the damage caused by water stress, typical of winter in the Central South region, gains great importance in the management strategy to be adopted. In the last harvest, we observed how critical this period could be for the drop in estimated productivity, as well as significant reductions in the quality of the raw material produced.

Plants, when exposed to stress conditions, whether biotic or abiotic, increase the concentrations of so-called reactive oxygen species (R.O.S. in its acronym in English), or better known as free radicals, which are harmful to their optimal metabolic development. This oxidative process is combated by the plant itself in its physiological mechanisms, but to a certain extent.

With the advancement of studies on plant physiology, as well as the improvement of foliar fertilizer production techniques, a new generation of products comes to the market, no longer with the simple function of complementary mineral fertilization, but rather equipped with different technologies or concepts aimed at a better protective effect of crops, especially in periods of greater physiological demand or combating external adversities.

Soil conditioners, such as humic and fulvic acids, amino acid complexes and the use of synthetic phytohormones are examples of these new technologies used in the field, however when the central objective in question is combating external stresses at the physiological level of plants, the use of products based on plant extracts, classified as plant biopotentiators or class A organomineral fertilizers stand out in terms of their efficiency.

Plant biopotentiators, mainly those derived from extracts of seaweed of the genus Ascophyllum, when in foliar applications, they enable gains in productivity and quality of the raw material of crops through the availability of active metabolic compounds (CMA) that act directly on various chains of plant metabolism, promoting an increase in the amount of chlorophyll, an increase in the leaf area index, better use of water present in the soil and greater health of leaves entering natural senescence later.

Biopotentiators therefore act with excellent anti-stress action when taken into account applications to mitigate damage caused by the period of transition from wet to dry times of the year (water stress) or resulting from large exposures to temperature extremes, such as high levels solar radiation or occurrence of frost.

Aiming to meet the expectations of a market increasingly committed to combining integrated and sustainable solutions, FMC offers its customers solutions in the agricultural market, such as the FERTIS line, which includes CROP, a class A organomineral biopotentiator produced through a process patented multi-stage biofermentation (MAC TEC) providing antioxidant activity up to ten times greater than other products on the market.

The company highlights the strategic importance of its FERTIS line in the plant biopotentiators market, today forming a global Plant Health platform in the company and presenting itself as another tool to help in the combination of chemical and/or biological treatments to be used in the search greater productivity and longevity of crops.

Guilherme M. Manzi, Specialist in Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition at FMC