Farm better, farm smarter, farm with a smaller footprint

SUSTAINABILITY

Farm better, farm smarter, farm with a smaller footprint

Levity Crop Science has a growing reputation as a leader in functional fertilizers, offering novel products that boost nitrogen and calcium efficiency and the crop uptake of micronutrients such as boron, molybdenum and silicon. This has culminated in the recent completion of a new research and development centre near Preston in the UK.

“Insanity” Albert Einstein reputedly said, “is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Shame then that this quote is a misattribution – with no proof Einstein ever actually said these words.

That shouldn’t detract from its underlying sentiment though: when making the same mistakes, successful change requires you to act differently. That’s simply a truism.

This quote, whatever its true provenance, certainly resonates with Dr David Marks. A plant biologist by training, David has always been fascinated by the inner workings of the handful of plants – wheat, barley, rice, soybeans and maize – that form the basis of the world’s food production

“Having productive, high-yielding crops, free from pests and diseases, is the cornerstone of world agriculture,” he explains.

“But I always thought we were going about it in totally the wrong way.”

Same old, same old

What Dr Marks is referring to is the basis of the global crop protection industry: the endless screening of hundreds and thousands of candidate molecules to identify those with potential as insecticides, fungicides or herbicides.

“As the screening process becomes more drawn out, because more and more chemicals need to be screened to meet the ever-more stringent regulatory requirements, so too the cost of developing new products becomes ever more expensive.”

“Fewer and fewer products are successfully registered, yet even these are essentially reinventions of the same thing,” he reflects.

“It’s like this: we see the arrival of a new active ingredient. Promising to outperform whatever previous molecule it’s superseding, it gives farmers a few years to get ahead of the pests and diseases before the single mode of action is inevitably overcome by resistance, and the cycle starts again.

“When the replacement arrives, there are more caveats on its use, in a bid to add some more years to its useful life before the inevitable tail-off in performance.”

Dr Marks says he’s frustrated with this crop protection orthodoxy. “It’s almost impossible to make this system work forever. By its very nature, it is not sustainable. The cost of development is too high. The model is flawed.

“So why do we keep on the same route?”

Drs David Marks and Anna Weston founded and jointly run the UK-based functional fertilizer company Levity Crop Science.

PHOTO: LEVITY

Right industry, wrong model?

While Dr Marks’ believes the crop protection industry is heading in the wrong direction, his criticisms are of its ‘flawed model’. His frustration does not mean he is pushing for an agrochemical-free future.

“There’s an idea that we can pursue an organic future and make our crops sufficiently productive without using agrochemicals. I’m no advocate for that. We don’t have enough land. We can’t afford to be ‘relaxed’ about the challenge facing agriculture, to feed the world: it must be productive, and that means coaxing and nurturing our crops to reach their full yield potential.”

Agrochemicals – as crop inputs – play a vital role, he says. But not at any cost. “When we see the same mistakes, repeatedly, surely it’s time to do things differently.”

Dr Marks has very much put his money where his mouth is: he’s the founder of Levity Crop Science, a British firm that’s building a steadily increasing range of ‘smart’ crop input products in markets around the world. The company’s objectives are simple: to improve crop production, reduce waste, increase yield, and contribute to farmers’ profitability.

It’s noticeable that not one of those objectives references, or focuses on, ‘agricultural sustainability’. Dr Marks says that’s for good reason.

“Many farmers want to farm differently. Yes, they say ‘sustainability’ is a key driver. But they must square that with the need to remain profitable; they’re also wary of products that overpromise.

“If we can develop products that satisfy each of those objectives, with science-led solutions, the farmers who use them will already be farming more sustainably: they’ll produce increased yields of higher quality crops, improving their returns and their resource-use efficiency.

“Although we’re developing crop inputs from a different start point and with a different mentality, at the point of use there’s no difference.

“We want to allow farmers around the world an opportunity to use fewer harsh chemicals – and to avoid the inevitability of declining performance, because of resistance – while continuing to pursue an otherwise conventional crop production programme.”

Inputs that work with the crop

Levity’s approach is heavily reliant on science, drawing strongly on Dr Marks’ background in plant biology. Understanding how plants work – their physiology, their biochemistry, the role of hormones – is central to making inputs work with the crop more readily, explains Dr Marks. He says we’ve become conditioned to accepting that crop inputs should be defined into categories – insecticide or fungicide, for example.

But plants are not only very complicated organisms, they’re also very adept at multi-purposing the products of photosynthesis and the hundreds of different biochemical pathways they employ, he adds.

“So you don’t have to have a product that’s exclusively one thing or another, and that’s Levity’s thinking. A lot of our products are classified as fertilizers, but they’re ‘functional’ in that they have properties that go beyond what you’d expect from a conventional, ‘passive’ fertilizer.”

Science-based, then, but a very different kind of science. “There’s no shortage of people who are set on making agriculture more sustainable, and who have products to show for it. The difference is that many of those don’t really know what’s in their products, why or how they work, and – in some cases – even if they do work.”

Levity’s modus operandi could be described as ‘the third way’, says Dr Marks. “We’re not into testing thousands and thousands of chemicals to try to find the incremental 0.5%, nor are we packing uncertain, inconsistent organic derivatives into bottles and attaching dubious claims to it.

“The best way to describe us is that we’re not content to accept the status quo.

“The spirit of gravity is to believe that everything has already been done. It’s the opposite of the spirit of levity – irreverence and a belief that it’s possible to do something better.”

Radical solutions to known problems

Approaching known problems in crop production by looking for radically new ways of solving them is key to understanding Levity’s products. It also explains, Dr Marks adds, why Levity doesn’t yet have a ‘full range’ of products.

Every problem needs a different solution, he stresses, and while Levity has already established itself as a leader in nitrogen and calcium efficiency, bolstered by novel products to tackle inefficiencies in micronutrients such as boron, molybdenum and silicon, he says there’s no point in being seen to have a full range merely for the sake of it.

Nevertheless, he says that Levity’s portfolio will grow over the next few years, a promise given considerable credibility by the recent completion of a new research and development centre near Preston, UK (see box). Under full family control – Levity is jointly owned and run by Dr Marks and his wife, Dr Anna Weston – Dr Marks hopes the new facility will give his team the continued freedom and ability to pursue avenues of research without being beholden to anyone.

“We set our own targets. Yes, we can end up in a blind alley, but even that’s valuable. Most of the time, we make things work, and while not every challenge is successful, the most important point is the challenge. Orthodoxies are there to be challenged,” he says.

Setting the right targets

‘Making agriculture more sustainable’ works as a strapline, but for Dr Marks it’s not specific enough. “What does it mean at the farmer level? What does it mean for resource use? What about food waste?”

Product development at Levity therefore focuses on a few key metrics, such as environmental impact, improvements to fresh produce shelf life, increased marketable quality, reduced crop stress, or measurable effects on disease incidence.

“From the farmer’s perspective, these translate into finding ways to help him or her farm better, farm smarter, farm with a smaller footprint,” Dr Marks explains.

“For example, can we reduce their reliance on, or usage of, pesticides? Agriculture accounts for 70 percent of the world’s freshwater usage: can we find ways to help them use lower-grade water resources?

“Can we help them harvest crops that can travel long distances without loss of quality, or which don’t need refrigeration or controlled atmospheres? Can we help reduce waste in the food chain, by raising the quality of produce and eliminating non-marketable grades?”

“What we don’t do is to set ourselves boring targets,” laughs Dr Marks. “We can’t rewrite the rule book on agriculture if we’re only looking at conventional targets.”

Real nutrient use efficiency

Levity isn’t alone in wanting to improve agriculture’s use of precious resources and challenge accepted norms.

“We use too much nitrogen,” points out Dr Marks. “We’re still using forms of nitrogen that create pollution. And often, that nitrogen takes too much resource in its manufacture.”

Much of the pollution is because crops can’t make use of much of the nitrogen that’s applied – Dr Marks says around two-thirds more nitrogen is applied to fields than is used in the crop, even when precision applications are made.

Dr Marks believes we shouldn’t simply be talking about ‘nitrogen’ anyway – preferring the term ‘nitrogen-containing molecules’ instead.

“These nitrogen-containing molecules are not created equal. Some are more stable than others, but more importantly they’re processed differently in the plant, requiring differing amounts of energy.”

Every plant has a finite energy budget. If a particular process – nitrogen processing, for instance – consumes energy inefficiently, then there’s less energy available for other purposes.

This is the thinking behind one of Levity’s most widely used products, Lono. It contains a stabilised amine nitrogen (SAN) which, says the company, consumes twelve times less photosynthetic energy than an equivalent amount of nitrate.

“Lono allows farmers to be ‘smart’ with their fertiliser use,” Dr Marks explains. “Not only does the crop make better use of all the nitrogen applied, farmers can also target applications to ensure the crop has access to nitrogen at key times – tuber bulking in potatoes, for example – to help manipulate and optimise quality, yields and marketable grades.”

As a testament to Levity’s appeal across crops and continents, Dr Marks cites Australian pineapples and Dutch onions as evidence for Lono’s abilities. Growing on sandy soils on Queensland’s Pacific coast presents a particular environmental challenge: damage to the Great Barrier Reef is exacerbated by high nitrogen levels. A commercial trial of Lono saw the nitrogen application rate plummet, from 400 kg/ha down to just 3 kg/ha.

Inspecting strawberry fruit with a handheld colorimeter during a growing trial.

PHOTO: LEVITY

And in the Netherlands, where farmers are coming under intense political pressure to reduce nitrogen applications – or even to stop farming altogether – Levity’s SAN provided the opportunity to slash nitrogen applications in onions, from 150 kg/ha to just 4 kg/ha.

“In both instances, substituting the high applications of conventional nitrogen product with the stabilised amine saw no loss of yield, while the drastic reduction in application rates prevented any kind of pollution,” notes Dr Marks.

Levity’s intricate understanding of plant physiology and biochemical processes that led to Lono’s development have also been applied in pursuit of other key nutrients where inefficiencies are well-documented. With calcium, for example, Levity formulated a synthetic transport stimulant that emulates the essential plant hormone auxin, to ensure sufficient absorption in tissues that can’t otherwise absorb it at crucial times – and to help farmers reduce the rate at which conventional applications of calcium are otherwise made.

Boron is another essential micronutrient that presents a challenge to farmers. That’s because there’s a fine line between deficiency in the fruit (where it’s needed) and excess in the leaves (where it’s toxic). Again, Levity’s research pursued the development of an ‘active’ product applied at a low-rate (addressing toxicity and optimising resource-use) using another bespoke transport stimulant.

And it was another transport stimulant that allowed Levity to solve the silicon problem: why do plants readily absorb silicon, only for it to become inert so quickly?

Micronutrients and stress

Abiotic stress may become the biggest 21st century challenge to growing crops, thanks to changing weather patterns.

“Stress affects crops in different ways,” notes Dr Marks. “Wheat, for instance, is resilient enough to produce some yield except in extreme drought. But for fruit and vegetables, stress can completely wipe out a crop.”

Then there’s biotic stress. “Walk past a wild plant and you’ll rarely find it riddled with disease. But when crops are pushed to their limit, to produce the yield we need, we create a world in which disease thrives. And that’s why we’ve become so dependent on fungicides.”

Dr Marks says Levity’s aim is to develop ‘anti-stress’ products that work in tandem with pesticides and reduce fungicide use.

He cites the troublesome banana disease, black sigatoka. Despite regular fungicide applications, producers must resort to removing leaves to reduce disease. But they must preserve enough leaves to maintain optimal yields.

“Big gains would result from keeping one more leaf, which we can do if we improve the plant’s stress resilience. Improved resilience reduces their reliance on fungicides.”

Dr David Marks monitors the progress of a pot trial at the expanded greenhouse facilities at Levity Crop Science’s Crowhall Farm R&D centre, Lancashire, UK.

PHOTO: LEVITY

This is the thinking behind Indra, Levity’s first ‘anti-stress’ product. Indra is based on an understanding of biochemistry and functions by increasing the plant’s production of cell-wall stabilisers. These ‘mop up’ the oxidative toxins which accumulate during stress periods and harm the plant’s ability to fight off disease.

Micronutrients and quality

‘Quality’ has many aspects, especially for fresh produce. Cosmetic appearance and shelf life are perhaps the most important post-harvest aspects, while in the field it’s measured in marketable grades and uniformity of ripening.

“We’ve proved that appropriate use of nutrients such as calcium and molybdenum can have a major influence on these quality aspects,” says Dr Anna Weston, Levity’s managing director. “Of course, calcium’s well-known for being a ‘problem’ nutrient, and molybdenum’s much the same – deficiencies are short-lived and almost impossible to detect.”

Levity is again challenging the orthodoxy here. “Ethylene is the accepted ripening agent, but it’s a crude tool. Its mode of action is to remove calcium from fruit cell walls. Yes, it softens the fruit for ‘ripeness’ but it also leaves their shelf life in tatters.”

Dr Weston’s research instead focused on abscisic acid (ABA), another plant hormone influencing maturity. It ripens fruit and increases sugar content without removing calcium. However, as its production relies on molybdenum, the plant can sometimes struggle to synthesise enough.

Levity’s novel solution this time was a metabolic stimulant. The end result was the development of one of its building block technologies, Blush, to ‘turbocharge’ crop metabolism.

“The crop responds by making use of what it finds in abundance,” explains Dr Weston. “When formulated with molybdenum, we force the plant into using Mo more quickly, producing high levels of ABA.”

Dr Weston has commercially trialled Levity’s molybdenum-based product Sulis – which also contains boron to help increase sugar production – on apples grown for one of Britain’s premium supermarkets. “Typically, apple growers will conduct three picks,” Dr Weston explains. “The first pick is the prime crop, the second pick will be juiced, and the third pick is simply to clean the tree. Each pick represents a third of the total crop.

“When Sulis was applied, the first pick proportion increased to 70%, thanks to improvements in colour and brix, and no ‘cleaning pick’ was required. There’s more marketable fruit for the farmer, he’s picking earlier so he gets a better price, and he also saves the cost of hiring labour for that third pick.”

Another fruit prone to quality issues is the tomato. Highly susceptible to damage during picking, packing and transportation, losses of up to 50 percent are common. Further losses occur at the retailer and after sale, when soft, damaged or rotting fruit is thrown away.

“Calcium’s known to improve firmness,” says Dr Weston, “but difficulties in its absorption and transport would necessitate a rate of tens of kilos per hectare to generate any measurable effect.

“But when we used our calcium transport stimulant – LoCal – on pre-harvest tomato plants, we found fruits from treated plants were significantly firmer than fruit from either untreated plants, or those from plants treated with calcium alone. They maintained this firmness for as long as 10 weeks post-harvest.”

When the tomatoes were subjected to simulated handling damage, those that had received the LoCal treatment maintained their firmness for more than two weeks after the damage was inflicted – exceeding even untreated fruits that had not been damaged.

“This is ground-breaking research,” says Dr Weston. “A well-timed product in the field can influence shelf life. We’re used to living in a country with reliable electricity for cold storage. What if you live and farm somewhere else? And anyway, what’s the carbon footprint for refrigeration and controlled atmosphere storage?

“Here’s a crop input – based on a micronutrient – that becomes a substitute for technology and infrastructure.”

What’s next for Levity?

It’s not just quality and stress where micronutrient applications play a role. They can also make food more nutritious. It’s the next focus for Levity, says Dr Marks.

“At the moment, we’re looking more closely at zinc. It’s an important nutrient in the human diet, but zinc deficiencies are common in areas of the world where rice is dominant. That’s because the rice husk – usually discarded during processing – is a zinc sink, with little remaining in the grain itself.

“We’ve a product in development that can address this, but crucially it also raises yield – so there’s something in it for the farmer, as well as the consumer. And that’s not the only nutritional target we’re working on.”

Speaking more generally, agriculture is unique, says Dr Marks, and not just because it provides us with food.

“It’s the only primary industry that we can manipulate to produce more. When we use the right inputs, we can produce more of a crop than there would have been otherwise. We can apply inputs that help crops grow in areas previously unsuitable.

“That’s why making agriculture more sustainable is so important. It’s a source of wealth generation both now and in the future. And while Levity’s one of the companies that has some of the answers, we don’t have them all – so we all need to do this together.”

Acknowledgement

Interview and reporting by Adrian Bell of Agromavens.