Fertilizer International 509 Jul-Aug 2022
31 July 2022
Innovation showcase
PRODUCT TECHNOLOGY
Innovation showcase
A selection of innovative products and technologies that have recently been brought to market.
Croptune from AgrIOT
Israeli Ag-tech company AgrIOT is the developer of the Croptune™ digital farming tool. This provides the grower with accurate, real-time measurements of plant nitrogen content for a broad range of field crops and orchards.
Croptune was launched commercially in March 2022 and is calibrated for use with the following crops:
- Field crops: Wheat, corn, tomato, potato, rice, carrot, lettuce, pepper, onion, cotton, cucumber
- Orchards: Pears, cherry, banana, avocado, peach, nectarine, citrus.
It is an effective, affordable, and easy-touse tool that provides real-time data on the crop’s NPK status, together with relevant fertilization recommendations.
Croptune can increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and improve agricultural sustainability by optimising nitrogen management. Positive sustainability impacts include:
- Reduced nitrous oxide (N2 O) emissions
- Reduced soil salination, so mitigating low crop yields
- Reduced nitrate-contamination of aquifers and water resources – commonly caused by overdosing with nitrogen fertilizers.
Croptune integrates three disciplines: optical sensing, agronomy, and computer science. It operates using a sophisticated and advanced decision support system (DSS) that combines big data/artificial intelligence (AI) with machine learning. These capabilities provide the grower with real-time fertilization recommendations. These are based on the measured nitrogen content and the crop’s characteristic nutrient requirements.
Croptune reports a holistic NPK fertilization recommendation – the required amounts of potassium and phosphate being calculated from the measured nitrogen content of the plant.
The technology can be used with any type of RGB (red, green, blue) camera, including standard cellphone cameras and aerial cameras. Depending on the resolution, Croptune can also analyse satellite RGB photos.
Although AgriIOT’s main customer base is currently in India and Israel, Croptune is being rolled out to new customers in Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Romania, Austria, and the Middle East from June this year. The company also plans to improve Crop-tune’s functionality in future and expand its range of services to include:
- Irrigation recommendations
- Yield predictions for selected field crops
- Pest and plant disease image analysis, with treatment recommendations.
Haifa Group has formed a strategic partnership with AgrIOT – having identified Croptune as a technological breakthrough. The company is pursuing further strategic partnerships to aid its global expansion.
Tracegrow micronutrient fertilizers
Tracegrow is a Finnish cleantech company that manufactures liquid micronutrient foliar fertilizers from recycled alkaline batteries. Billions of these batteries are produced each year. These are hard to recycle conventionally and are often treated as a hazardous waste. Tracegrow’s patented environmentally-friendly process, in contrast, can safely recycle valuable materials from alkaline batteries at high efficiency.
Turning alkaline battery black mass into valuable fertilizer helps address two pressures. Firstly, the life cycles of raw materials, their environmental impacts and the depletion of natural resources are receiving increased attention from legislators. Secondly, agricultural demand for micronutrients, meanwhile, keeps on rising.
Correcting micronutrient deficiencies – due to their association with lower crop yields and financial losses – are becoming increasingly important for farmers. Foliar fertilization is recognised as an effective way of correcting micronutrient deficiencies quickly. The foliar application of micronutrients also enhances the plant’s ability to absorb other nutrients more efficiently. Manganese, for example, has a significant effect on the uptake of nitrogen, an essential nutrient that affects plant growth.
Tracegrow’s ‘circular economy’ process separates zinc and manganese from recycled alkaline batteries (see photo) to create three sulphate-based organic foliar fertilizers:
- ZM-Grow is a zinc, manganese and sulphur foliar fertilizer
- ZMC-Grow is a zinc, manganese, sulphur and copper foliar fertilizer
- Zimaco-PRO is a zinc, manganese and sulphur foliar fertilizer that incorporates IDHA (biodegradable) chelated copper.
These liquid products can also be used to coat granular NPK fertilizers and as a seed dressing. They are currently available in 15 countries around the world and offer the following benefits and features:
- True ‘circular economy’ products
- Foliar fertilizers suitable for conventional and organic growing of both field and greenhouse crops
- Liquid products that are easy to pour, measure and mix
- Do not block sprayer nozzles and filters or cause equipment wear as no solid particles are present
- Excellent mixing properties with plant protection products and agrichemicals
- Sulphate-based solutions that are immediately absorbed through the plant leaves
- Backed by extensive field testing
- Certified for organic farming.
CleverFarm’s precision agriculture platform
The new digital platform offered by Czech AgTech company CleverFarm is designed to guide users through the entire precision farming process. Its goal is to increase crop yields while at the same time optimising the usage of inputs.
CleverFarm’s precision agriculture platform has valuable capabilities, such as the evaluation of sowing plans, the creation of variable maps, and the assessment of variable rate applications. Crucially, the platform helps growers evaluate where and when to apply fertilizers and at what dose. This makes the administration of fertilizers as efficient as possible and helps deliver target crop yields.
By providing crops with nutrients in the correct amounts and the composition needed, the platform also helps growers reduce soil and water pollution, and prevents the generation of greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide.
The platform monitors and evaluates the current state of the crop in terms of chlorophyll content, biomass volume, and water level in the vegetation. CleverFarm – thanks to the use of an AI (artificial intelligence) model – can immediately identify the absolute value of these parameters, based on satellite images, and then compares these to the normal values for individual crops at a given phenophase (growth stage).
Growers also receive information about whether their crops are doing better or worse than average across the growing area. This monitoring is often used to determine the variable rate application of nitrogen fertilizers and the use of growth regulators. Chlorophyll content, in particular, accurately detects where supplementary nitrogen fertilization is needed.
CleverFarm complements these crop data with additional information on weather and soil conditions. For example, it can import soil sample data to create macro- and micro-element maps. As an open platform, CleverFarm can integrate any relevant third-party data. This helps growers reach the right farm management decisions (for fertilizers and other inputs) by providing them with the most complete set of information.
Precision agriculture aims to deliver higher crop yields combined with savings on fertilizers, water, and seeds.
“Thanks to satellite monitoring of the current state of the crops, our system will evaluate and recommend when, with what intensity, and in which place of the land to perform input applications,” comments CleverFarm’s co-founder Adam Zlotý.
CleverFarm can also be used by crop advisors and fertilizer distributors. The platform – by providing an excellent overview of what is happening at farm level – helps them advise their clients on where, how much, and what fertilizers to apply. Fertilizer distributors are interested in cooperating with CleverFarm as the platform creates personalised fertilization plans that can achieve higher returns for their customers.
Calciprill from Omya
Securing food production for a growing population is one of the world’s greatest challenges. Globally, acid soils with a pH below 5.5 occupy about 30 percent of land surface and are estimated to reduce crop productivity by around 40-50 percent.
The effects of acid soils on crops
Soil pH has a direct effect on the solubility and/or availability of nutrients and other deleterious soil components. For example, the solubility of toxic elements such as aluminium and manganese in acid soils, where the pH is below 5.5, directly affects crop health and growth. The macronutrients essential for plant growth (NPK) are inaccessible to the crop in acidic soils. For example, only 77 percent of the soil nitrogen is plant-available at pH 5.5 – the remainder being locked in forms that plants find hard to assimilate or is lost through leaching. Soil phosphates are also tied up and inaccessible at low pH. Potassium, which is even more sensitive to soil pH, remains fixed to soil particles with only 52 percent available at a soil pH of 6.
In acids soils, therefore, the plant’s productive potential is severely hampered. Because of this, the unnecessary use of extra inputs (fertilizers) is often required to compensate for the low nutrient availability – resulting in higher economic and environmental costs.
Aglime – the traditional approach
Traditionally, liming has been the most common method for neutralising widespread soil acidity and keeping soil pH within a range that is favourable for crop production. This typically involves the addition of calcium- and magnesium-rich materials to soils such as chalk, limestone, burnt lime or hydrated lime.
It is not uncommon for farmers to apply large quantities of limestone (aglime) to their land every 5-10 years – with the general aim of improving soil productivity. This approach can be very hit-and-miss, however, as applications are imprecise and poorly targeted. Consequently, as agriculture has become more efficient, there has been a need to improve the liming process and develop better aglime products that provide growers with more effective and precise neutralisation options.
Advanced soil amendment technology
Omya Calciprill® is a recently developed soil amendment product designed for precise applications that can effectively and efficiently correct soil acidity.
Calciprill is a high-quality form of natural calcium carbonate. It consists of micronised ultrafine particles (0.7-100 μm) that have been granulated into 2-6 mm diameter prills for ease of application. Calciprill’s purity means it has a high neutralising value that is equal to or better than traditional aglime (Table 1).
However, it is Calciprill’s ultrafine particle size – compared to traditional liming materials – that is key to improving distribution in the soil. The much higher surface area of these micronised particles increases the opportunities for the chemical bases they contain to meet and neutralise the hydrogen (H+ ) ions that cause acidity. This corrects soil pH faster and more effectively at lower rates.
Suitable for precision agriculture
Calciprill granules can be applied in precision agriculture with standard fertilizer spreaders or by air. They do this without creating clouds of dust and avoid the hit-and-miss approach of traditional aglime applications. Granules can be applied before, during or after planting at times when the change in pH most benefits crop growth. Once in the soil, the granules disintegrate easily, enabling the ultrafine particles to move through the soil and increase pH where it is needed, especially in zones where crop roots are growing.
By correcting soil pH, Calciprill gives plants full access to the available soil nutrients. It also provides crops with essential calcium throughout their growth cycle, enhancing crop health and quality.
Omya, by making Calciprill available to growers, is hoping to increase cropland productivity and also help make fertilizer use more efficient by correcting soil acidity.
InnoSolve PKMe from Innovar Ag
With the current state of the global economy and threats to the environment, the efficiency and economic benefits of a good crop fertilization programme are of increasing importance, according to Innovar Ag.
Based in Bradenton, Florida, the company’s team has spent over 20 years developing and improving enhanced efficiency fertilizer (EEF) technologies for the agricultural and turf markets. Today, Innovar Ag’s wide range of EEF products are available in 32 countries and rapidly rising.
By bringing these value-added fertilizers to market globally since 1996, the company’s CEO Andrew Semple has helped to change the way fertilizers are used. He explains how the value-added market has developed:
“It is good to see the large-scale adoption of EEF technologies in agriculture worldwide today. We have all come to a point where these easy-to-use technologies are available, are simple to implement as part of a fertilization plan, and still get a good return on investment of between 3-1 and 10-1 in many cases.”
“Urease and nitrification inhibitors did a wonderful job with nitrogen conservation, efficiency and profit – for farmers and the distribution chain. Right now, we are happy to say that a new broad-spectrum efficiency additive named InnoSolve PKMe has been the fastest growing segment of our ag and turf technology business.”
InnoSolve PKMe is a negatively-charged, biodegradable polymer with a high cation exchange capacity (CEC) that is available in liquid or dry powder form. Dr Ray Asebedo, Innovar’s VP of R&D Technology explains how it works:
“When fertilizer is treated with PKMe and then applied to the soil, PKMe will delay the formation of precipitates that move many essential nutrients into a non-plant available form. Thus, PKMe will keep your essential nutrients – such as phosphorus, potassium and many other micronutrients – available to the plant for a longer period time, which will result in increased nutrient uptake and potentially higher yields.”
Clear and simple messaging with growers is vital, says Semple:
“It is important to understand the way this technology works and be able to explain it to our customers in a way that the whole chain can understand and then relay. From a commercial perspective, the adoption is well accepted. Because not only does it help the uptake and availability of phosphate and potash in the soil, it also effects a positive uptake of micronutrients.”
Customer demand for innovative fertilizers has spurred product development, says Luciano Lucero VP of Technical Sales:
“After solving nitrogen problems for more than two decades, we constantly were challenged by our customers to bring the next novelty to the market. InnoSolve PKMe came to close that gap – fitting perfectly into our core business of liquid additives for fertilizers.”
“Some of the benefits that PKMe brings to the table include the logistics and storage benefits of a liquid additive, more than 20 years of positive field research, and broad-spectrum fertilization that makes macro and micronutrients more available to crops.”
“In the last two years, we’ve expanded the business with PKMe in seven countries from North to South America and listed amazing results from citrus to soybeans crops. These have shown not only yield improvements, but superior nutrient uptake as well, and faster recovery from adverse weather conditions – all proving that InnoSolve PKMe is perfect for distributors, dealers and especially farmers looking for enhanced efficiency fertilizers.”
The increasing adoption of such products will be important, says Innovar, by helping to feed the world’s growing population and keeping food affordable.
ICL adds two newcomers to its FertilizerpluS range
ICL has expanded its FertilizerpluS product range by adding two new product lines – ICL NPKpluS and Polysulphate Premium.
FertilizerpluS are high quality Polysulphate-based granular fertilizers. The Polysulphate is sourced from ICL’s Boulby mine in the UK and contains the natural mineral polyhalite.
NPKpluS is a new NPK line with Polysulphate inside. It has been developed in response to rising demand for magnesium and calcium, the increasing importance of sulphur as a nutrient, and the need for new approaches to balanced fertilization.
The nutrient composition of NPKpluS – with three soluble sulphates of magnesium, potassium, and calcium – guarantees more complete and efficient crop fertilization. By balancing efficient raw materials with advanced technology, NPKpluS offers farmers improved yields compared to traditional fertilizer practices, according to ICL.
NPKpluS allows farmers to apply six essential nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium along with sulphur, magnesium, and calcium – in one single application. Thanks to its Polysulphate content, NPKpluS simultaneously provides crops with all the essential elements they require for their development. It is able to offer much more balanced nutrition, suggests ICL, in comparison to products which supply nutrients with different degrees of solubility.
NPKpluS is produced by ICL at plants in China (prilling) and Ludwigshafen, Germany (blending) and is available in a variety of formulations. Blends can be tailor made and, if required, can incorporate zinc and/or boron. Recommended application rates are based on crop nutrient requirements and the site-specific nutrient supply from the soil.
Polysulphate Premium is granulated from powdered polyhalite to form uniform, robust spheres. Its smooth surface protects granules from abrasion, humidity and damage, while its spherical shape provides a steady flow rate and a consistent broad spread during application. The product easily blends with other granulated fertilizers and gives an attractive appearance.
Polysulphate Premium is produced at ICL’s Ludwigshafen plant in Germany and has the following composition:
- 45.6 percent SO3 (18.2% S) as sulphate
- 13 percent K2 O (10.7% K) as sulphate of potassium
- 5.6 percent MgO (3.4% Mg) as magnesium sulphate
- 16.4 percent CaO (11.8% Ca) as calcium sulphate.
Polysulphate Premium inherits all the valuable characteristics of Polysulphate. This multi-nutrient, natural fertilizer is mined in the UK and has a low carbon footprint. It provides four plant nutrients – sulphur, potassium, magnesium, and calcium – and delivers dependable high value at a low environmental impact.
Polysulphate is suitable for all crop types and is certified for organic use in many different countries. It has a neutral pH and, being a low chloride fertilizer with a very low salinity index, can also be applied to more sensitive crops. Polysulphate releases its nutrients gradually over time, functions over a wide soil pH range, from acidic to alkaline, and is suitable for both sandy and clayey soil types. It provides plants with prolonged sulphur availability, while reducing the risk of leaching in sandy soils and under high rainfall conditions.
The major difference between Polysulphate and Polysulphate Premium, aside from their appearance, is a faster mode of action. Polysulphate Premium is granulated from powdered polyhalite into smooth, uniform, and robust spheres. This ensures consistent product quality. It also becomes soluble as soon as this premium fertilizer reaches the soil – making essential plant nutrients available for crop uptake immediately and for a prolonged period of time.
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) from Soilgenic
Canada’s Soilgenic Technologies offers innovative products designed to improve fertilizer production, soil health and plant nutrient uptake. The company has developed a suite of enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) for nitrogen fertilization, as well as a technology that improves phosphate fertilizer availability.
Soilgenic has over 40 EEF patents and has developed a portfolio of what it calls ‘Gen 2’ (second generation) technologies which significantly improve on the previous first generation of EEFs. These Gen 2 products add greater value to the market at around half the cost of today’s EEF technologies.
“The fertilizer industry is in a state of change, and there is pressure to reduce emissions and runoff. Adding to the situation is fertilizer supply issues and costs have risen quickly, so interest is very high in getting more applied fertilizer into the plant for higher protein and crop yield, and less into the air and water,” comments Jeff Ivan, Soilgenic’s CEO.
“That is what the next generation Soil-genic products deliver, and at a significant reduced price point to hit mass market adoption, and not just a high value niche,” he adds.
Soilgenic’s formulations are more cost effective as they can be added at lower application rates due to their highly active ingredients. They are also designed to perform well in extreme cold or hot and humid climates. The company’s suite of retail EEF products covers all nitrogen sources and includes:
- Visio-N Total for urea is a balanced, high activity formulation that offers nitrogen protection both on the surface and in the soil. It incorporates Soil-genic’s patented NitroBlock™ dicyandiamide (DCD) inhibitor. The company believes this will set a new standard for below ground protection against leaching and denitrification losses.
- Diamond-N is an effective, low-cost option for protecting urea ammonium nitrate (UAN). It has the highest activity level of any UAN protection product on the market and dissolves readily to form a solution not a suspension. Its solubility allows Diamond-N to be added to UAN at the retail level. It also means the grower doesn’t have to worry about the settling out of active ingredients that can occur with a suspension.
- Knifed-N is the industry’s first non-corrosive EEF technology for protecting anhydrous ammonia. This patented and water-free formulation is safer for users and improves equipment life. Incorporating Soilgenic’s NitroBlock DCD inhibitor, Knifed-N also offers significant savings by reducing input costs by up to 50 percent compared to other types of anhydrous ammonia protection.
- The Drive-N formulation for ammonia-based fertilizers improves protective coverage and penetration when coating hard granular products such as ammonium sulphate and DAP/MAP. It also keeps ammonia stable in manure management. This formulation again incorporates Soilgenic’s NitroBlock DCD inhibitor which lower costs and improves the overall value of Drive-N.
Soilgenic also offers Phosgain, a patented polymer technology that shields and protects phosphate fertilizers. This creates a polymer of a specific molecular weight that moves with the phosphate and creates a protective shield against ‘strong’ cations such as potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron. This protective polymer improves phosphate fertilizer availability and performance by making phosphorus available to the crop for much longer.
Phosgain is also cost effective, offering a 7-10 times return on investment, and delivering an average increase in crop yield of 17 percent based on trials over a three-year period. It also helps to free phosphate from the soil and functions over a wide pH range – properties which make it widely applicable globally.
Phosgain can be added upstream during phosphate manufacturing or downstream at distribution/retail level.
