Maize: the gift of the gods

If fungi could indeed watch out, they definitely shoulddo so as Bayer CropScience is about to launch a wholerange of new fungicidal seed treatment products.In fact, in some cases the launch has begun already.Seed treatment, as numerous studieshave shown, is one of the most efficientways to protect crops from harm. Manyimportant diseases can’t be controlled byany other means. Spraying after plants haveemerged is too late when fighting diseaseslike the common bunt of wheat, snow mouldand loose smut or stripe disease, to namebut a few. In contrast, seed treatmentallows the simultaneous control of pathogensin the soil as well as on and in theseed: by applying the active substancedirectly to the seed it disinfects its surface.In the soil, the active ingredient forms aprotective zone around the seed. As soonas the tender roots emerge they absorb theagent.Seed treatment has additional benefits.Just a relatively small amount of the activesubstance is necessary to provide theseedling with a high level of protectionagainst a broad variety of fungal diseases.This not only makes the method interestingfor economic reasons but also from an ecologicalpoint of view: Compared withspraying, it dramatically reduces thetreated area. Seed treatment is one of themost focused chemical crop protectionmethods available to date. “The applicationof a seed treatment product helps toensure that the seed germinates rapidly,that the young plants are not affected bypests and diseases and that the cropquickly achieves the desired density. Thisis how seed treatment contributes to highyields and high-quality harvests” saysBurkhard Schütz, leader of the teamresponsible for the fungicidal seed treatmentproducts at Bayer CropScience inMonheim, Germany.Bayer CropScience has a long traditionin the seed treatment business with manysuccessful products already introduced:but it refuses to rest on its laurels. Morethan five new fungicidal seed treatmentproducts will be launched within the nextfour years. Two have been developed withthe East European market in mind; the othersare targeted at Western Europe. Yet, asBurkhard Schütz says, these seed treatmentproducts “offer opportunities for otherregions, too. For instance, I could imagineLatin and North America and Australia totake advantage of them”. According toplans, at least twenty five countries worldwidewill benefit from the new products.“These are tailored solutions for therespective markets. They are differentiatedaccording to region and the predominantdiseases as well as the respective diseasepressure.”One of those new products is Raxil ®Ultra, an advanced development of thewell-established product Raxil. Raxil,today sold in 40 countries around theglobe, provides good control of Basiodomyceteson wheat and barley. ThomasGroenke, Product Manager, Seed TreatmentFungicides from Bayer CropSciencein Monheim: “Raxil earned the reputationas a superior protection product for seeddue to its broad spectrum of activity. Theproduct is easy to use and reliable whichmeans it provides cost efficient protectionagainst the most important seed- and soilbornediseases in cereals. Raxil is based onthe active substance tebuconazole, a wellestablishedleading fungicide from BayerCropScience. We have built on that: ouradvanced product Raxil Ultra relies on thesame tried and tested active ingredient butit now comes in double concentration. Itoffers a highly-concentrated formulationresulting in less storage space and lesspackaging to dispose of. Hence we thoughtfor this new concept that it is entirely appropriateto give it a new logo and package.”Ukraine was the first country worldwideto see the launch of Raxil Ultra. Inmid-February, at twenty five degreesbelow zero, two hundred farmers, tradersand seed merchants gathered together tolearn more about the new product. EduardMuljar, Product Manager from BayerCropScience in Kiev reflects: “Our experiencehas shown the importance of a successfulproduct launch. We therefore didour best to give a perfect presentation ofRaxil Ultra to our key distributors. Farmers,who are the actual decision makers, alsoparticipated. The combination of headquarterspecialists as well as Ukrainian scientistshas been very effective. In order tofurther strengthen the success of the initiallaunch event we have organized trainingseminars in different regions of the country.Accompanying this, there was a strongadvertising campaign in central andregional mass media to make our customersaware of the new product. As aresult we have received many orders forRaxil Ultra already.”But researchers at Bayer CropSciencedo not just advance tried and tested formulae.They have also come up with twoentirely new active substances. Both ofthese new agents, prothioconazole andfluoxastrobin were parallel developmentsfrom the mid-90s for foliar and seed treat-1/05 COURIER 11