Syngenta Thrive

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For more than 50 years, U.S. corn, sorghum and sugar cane growers have depended on atrazine herbicide to produce food sustainably. They trust that its safety and efficacy are well documented, as are its environmental, economic and production benefits.

In fact, atrazine is one of the most closely examined herbicides in the world. “This herbicide has gone through a tremendous amount of scientific testing, both with regard to managing its risks and measuring its benefits,” says Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America. “I doubt there is any compound used in agriculture—or anywhere else in society—that has been more thoroughly evaluated on its presence in surface and groundwater and its potential effects on wildlife.”

Toxicologist Timothy Pastoor, Ph.D., who spent much of his career at Syngenta studying atrazine, agrees. “When I talk about the science behind atrazine, I talk about the more than 7,000 studies that support the registration, which is far more than any other active ingredient on the market,” he says. “Atrazine is inexpensive, and it works. It’s the all-star of agriculture.”

Atrazine Advantages

All of that research has brought to light atrazine’s many benefits. For example, without atrazine, crop yields would potentially diminish, making U.S. growers less competitive compared with other global producers.

“If you significantly reduce yields, you’ll likely drive up production acreage,” says David Bridges, Ph.D., president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. “Well, there’s not a lot more acreage out there that’s prime farmland, so what do you do? You put marginal acreage that is currently in conservation programs—protecting streams and wildlife habitat—into production, which has negative consequences for the country as a whole.” Research shows that using atrazine helps keep an average of 513,000 acres in a noncrop scenario, allowing for more biodiversity on this acreage.

On farmed acres, atrazine helps reduce soil erosion by enabling no-till farming and conservation tillage. “Atrazine gives growers residual weed control, so they’re not having to do deep plowing every year, reducing soil and pesticide runoff,” says Dennis Kelly, head of state affairs at Syngenta. “Without atrazine, the fields may not be no-till any longer, and that’s going to decrease water quality due to increased sediments, especially in sensitive watersheds.”

According to studies, some 3 million dump trucks worth of soil are kept in place each year because of atrazine. Less plowing also means less petroleum burned, which means less carbon dioxide emitted.

Atrazine is highly selective and inhibits photosynthesis in weeds, while corn is very tolerant. According to Bridges, “It tends to make other corn herbicide products even better, leading to more than 60 prepackaged mixtures with other herbicides in the market.

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Farmers know that when they apply a product containing atrazine—of which there are more than 60—they’re going to get the broad-scale weed control they’re looking for.

Timothy Pastoor

Economics Upsides, Production Pluses

Atrazine is crucial economically, too. According to studies, the use of atrazine supports 85,000 jobs across the ag industry. It also means a boost of more than 900 million bushels of corn output each year.

Without atrazine in their toolboxes, growers would feel the financial implications quickly. “It makes a $34 to $48 positive difference per acre for a corn grower,” says Bridges. “When you’re talking about farmers with a couple thousand acres, that big difference in weed control and yield protection results in a large increase in their bottom lines.”

As one of the few herbicide modes of action available to growers, atrazine offers another benefit to growers, notes Ethan Mathews, director of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association: “It’s one of the last lines of defense we have against weeds that are resistant to other herbicides.”

It’s, therefore, not surprising that growers and herbicide manufacturers alike often turn to atrazine for more effective weed control. It’s frequently sold in combination with newer active ingredients because it makes those products work better. “Other active ingredients might not have the span of weed coverage that’s necessary for the farmer; the addition of atrazine gives the product formulation the span of activity farmers are looking for,” Pastoor says. “Farmers know that when they apply a product containing atrazine—of which there are more than 60—they’re going to get the broad-scale weed control they’re looking for.”

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Strong Grower Support

Given atrazine’s central role in the production of corn, sorghum and sugar cane, it’s understandable that concerns were raised last June when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an unfavorable preliminary draft ecological risk assessment on the herbicide. In response, the scientific and agriculture community submitted hundreds of thousands of comments in support of the product.

“The retailer and grower response and support were amazing,” Kelly says. “We believe that once EPA reviews the overwhelming evidence on the safety of atrazine, it will make changes to its assessment and farmers will be able to continue to use atrazine.”

Although EPA’s public comment period for that draft has concluded, the agency’s review process is ongoing. Next, EPA will review the provided information, amend the draft report as appropriate, and hold a Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meeting. Then the agency will publish a preliminary reregistration decision and ask for further public comment.

In addition to all the public comments, EPA will consider the volume of data that atrazine has on its side. “It’s one of the best-studied, most extensively regulated molecules on the planet,” Pastoor says. “Thousands of scientific studies have demonstrated that, when used properly at the labeled rate, atrazine has not, will not and, in fact, cannot adversely affect human health.”

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Syngenta scientists have solved the mystery behind an abnormal corn line responsible for revolutionizing corn breeding. Discovered in 1959 by University of Missouri Professor Edward H. Coe, Ph.D., the line produces haploid plants that contain just half the DNA of normal corn.

The ability to use this line to speed up breeding caught the attention of the corn-breeding industry. Today, all corn-breeding companies use haploids to shorten the time required to produce parent lines by several years. Reduced time and increased efficiencies for scientists to develop new hybrids have the potential to bring about higher-yielding, better-adapted seed options for growers at a faster pace.

But the reason why this odd and naturally evolved line produces haploids was never understood until recently. In 2007, Syngenta scientists began a quest to locate the genes responsible for haploid production. They found their answer by 2013 and followed up with gene editing to verify the discovery in 2015.

Solving this mystery will help Syngenta improve how scientists use haploids in current breeding systems and may lead to applying the technology in other crops. It also shows how new biotechnology can find solutions located deep in genetic coding.

Doubling Haploids

Some basic corn biology helps explain why haploids are so important to corn breeding. Corn is a diploid, meaning it has two copies of every chromosome in every cell. That’s 10 chromosomes that come from the female parent and 10 from the male parent. A haploid occurs when there is only one copy of every chromosome coming from one of the parents, while the copies from the other parent are gone.

Haploids become valuable when scientists double them and use them to produce homozygous breeding lines. In homozygous lines, all genes on each pair of chromosomes in every cell of the plant are identical. These homozygous lines are 100-percent inbred lines, which otherwise would have to be produced by repeated forced self-pollinations. The haploid method lets breeders produce inbred lines within just two generations, while traditional breeding takes 10 generations.

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We had this one huge-effect gene, the big gun. It was exciting that it was a major gene contributing so much of the trait.

Brant Delzer

“It speeds up parent line development for hybrid crops by several years,” says Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, Ph.D., head of Syngenta Seeds Research. “The way we do this is by regenerating new plants out of pollen or egg cells, which each have only one set of chromosomes, and then doubling the chromosomes of these plants through a chemical treatment. The end result of this process is a doubled-haploid plant.”

The most efficient way to produce doubled haploids in corn is through haploid induction, he adds. “It can be done cheaply in the field and is broadly applicable across all genetic starting material.”

Haploid induction requires taking pollen from a haploid-inducer plant and putting it on any female ear of corn. The result will be an odd-looking ear that’s populated with about 13 percent haploid kernels.

The Search for Answers

The discovery of corn haploids has been around since 1959, but its use really took off in the 1990s, as scientists learned how to effectively double the haploids and breeders efficiently used them in their breeding programs, says Brent Delzer, Ph.D., Syngenta corn breeder. Delzer was part of the team that searched for the gene source of the haploid induction.

“As scientists, we have inquiring minds and want to know what the genetic basis is that is contributing to haploid induction,” he says. In 2007, Syngenta made the first crosses of haploid inducers with non-inducers, while also developing a mapping population to search for the chromosome position of the genetic trait.

“We initiated that work in our nursery in Hawaii,” Delzer says. “We were able to get several generations a year and set up the breeding population so we could map the gene.”

In the summer of 2008, Delzer planted some of the first crosses at his location near Janesville, Wisconsin. The next winter, his colleagues in Hawaii grew fields with crosses for evaluation. The team was looking for the chromosome region containing genes contributing to the haploid-induction trait.

“Chromosomes are rather big with a lot of genes on each one,” Delzer says. “So after we mapped a spot on the chromosome, we had to do fine mapping.” Syngenta geneticist Satya Chintamanani, Ph.D., became involved with the search and during 2009 and 2010 helped hone in on a small region of a chromosome.

The team was able to identify six different genes in the region. Using gene sequencing, they found one of the genes had a mutation that produced haploids. They baptized it as the MATRILINEAL (MATL) gene.

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The Big Gun

The results surprised the team. The MATL gene was responsible for nearly 70 percent of the haploid-induction trait. “Corn has as many genes as people do—about 30,000—and almost all traits are controlled by many, many genes,” Delzer says. “But we had this one huge-effect gene, the big gun. It was exciting that it was a major gene contributing so much of the trait.”

There was another surprise ahead, which came during the verification process. Tim Kelliher, Ph.D., principal scientist for reproduction biology at Syngenta, led the verification to prove the gene was the correct one. The team used gene editing to recreate the small mutation in a normal inbred. By doing the minor edit, the plant produced a working haploid inducer, just like the one found decades ago in Missouri.

During the process, the team discovered the gene’s unusual type. “The gene produces a protein that modifies pollen fats or lipids,” Kelliher says. “Lipids are an important but poorly understood part of cellular biology. Now we are looking at the lipid composition of pollen grains and how they change to figure out ways to make haploids without editing genes.”

Future Work

The team’s work on the haploid mystery is not done, Kelliher says. Syngenta will continue to study the MATL gene and also identify the other minor genes involved in haploid production.

The value of this long-term research for Syngenta is two-fold, according to van Lookeren Campagne. The first comes with “making existing haploid-induction systems more efficient and thereby saving costs.”

The second is “deploying the technology to other crops that do not have any doubled-haploid production system,” he says. “That is where the real value would be, as it could really make a breakthrough in the breeding of these crops.”

Corn is a prime example of what can happen when scientists use the doubled haploid. “The line that Professor Coe found, the haploid inducer, has really underpinned the success of corn as a crop in the marketplace,” Kelliher says. “Corn is king, and a lot of it is due to this line.”

For Syngenta scientists, helping another crop achieve similar success and sustainably feeding the world are high on their list of priorities.

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By the year 2050, U.S. growers will need to reach an impressive level of food production to help feed a growing world population. Fewer in number, they will operate multifaceted businesses with stunning new technology to increase efficiency on farms.

These predictions come from experts who study food and farming trends. Here’s a look at what they think life on the farm will look like in 33 years.

Food Demand Increases

The two big drivers of food demand—population and income—are on the rise. The world’s population is expected to reach 9.1 billion people in 2050, up from 7.4 billion in 2016. Farmers globally must increase food production 70 percent compared to 2007 levels to meet the needs of the larger population, according to a report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.1

Also driving food demand is an increase in global income levels, especially those in developing countries. As a result, these countries will be able to expand diets with more protein.

A different trend is emerging in highly developed countries with more health-conscious populations. The focus on starch-based crops like corn will shift to more plant-based proteins like soybeans and other legumes, says Derek Norman, head of Corporate Venture Capital at Syngenta Ventures, which helps support other companies that share its vision of producing more crops with fewer resources.

Consolidation Accelerates

The 2012 ag census revealed a big shift in farmer ages that holds major implications for the future, says Widmar. For the first time, growers who are older than 65 outnumber farmers who are younger than 45. The difference is substantial, with 2.1 older growers for every farmer younger than 45.2

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As incomes rise, consumer preference moves from wheat and grains to legumes, and then to meat, including chicken, pork and beef.

David Widmar

When older growers exit the business, there are fewer younger growers to replace them. As a result, farm consolidation will be significant and quick, says Widmar. The consolidation will change farm dynamics to larger, more managerial complexities.

Farming will go “from a one-man show to something resembling a medium- to large-size business,” he says. “As a farmer, it will be very complicated, with a mix of multigenerational family members and hired employees.”

High-Tech Solutions Evolve

Farm consolidation will drive the need for more outside labor. Expect high-tech solutions like robotics to come to the rescue.

“If you have a robot, it can help manage labor issues,” Widmar says. Already, dairy farmers use robotic milkers as a substitute for labor. And farm equipment manufacturers are testing prototypes of robotic tractors and sprayers to handle fieldwork without human drivers.

The leap from prototype to commercial operation of robotic machinery may be short. Many new machines are currently equipped with the electronics to control operations with very little human interaction. However, the legal and regulatory issues surrounding robots must be bridged first.

With its regulations already in place, drone technology is poised for a boom in farm usage. In the next 10 years, the agricultural drone industry will generate 100,000 jobs in the U.S. and $82 billion in economic activity, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report. Potential use of on-farm drones by 2050 is huge, from imagery and product application to transporting supplies and jobs not yet imagined.

As farming relies more on complex equipment with lots of electronics, data collection will play an increasingly larger role in farm management. Programs like AgriEdge Excelsior® from Syngenta help growers learn to use data for whole-farm management. In the future, farms will have an increased need for data and information technology specialists, Widmar says.

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Gene Editing Booms

“By 2050, there will be gene-edited crops, and it will trigger a much wider variety of crops being grown,” says Norman.

This new technology allows scientists to precisely edit genes in DNA with the goal of creating a better crop variety. In the future, gene editing should enable farmers to select specific crop varieties that have features like resistance to different diseases, drought tolerance or more desirable oil content. Gene editing will provide a greater variety of crops that can be grown by editing out traits hampering widespread production.

By-the-Plant Crop Management

Water availability, environmental impacts and soil health will continue to challenge growers in the future. But new technologies will help them deal with these issues more efficiently, says Norman.

For example, the Israeli company Phytech, which is collaborating with Syngenta, has developed a monitoring system that features continuous plant-growth sensors, soil-moisture sensors and a microclimate unit. Monitoring data is then accessible on mobile devices and computers for immediate action, if needed.

“The technology to measure soil health, as well as satellite and aerial imagery to monitor crop growth, will be mainstream,” Norman says. He also expects widespread adoption of precision technology that reaches down to the plant level. Blue River Technology, another Syngenta collaborator, has developed a precision-smart implement that does just that. Called a LettuceBot, the implement uses cameras, processors, computers and quarter-inch sprayers to thin lettuce plants in the fields. This type of technology results in less chemical use and a lower environmental impact, which will be very important in 2050.

A Clue to the Future

While predictions can shed light on the future, we are still 33 years away from 2050. A whole new generation of growers, who are not yet born, will be farming midcentury, and much will happen between now and then that we cannot predict.

But if the past is a clue to the future, U.S. growers will continue to seek better ways to produce crops by embracing innovation.

1 “Global Agriculture Towards 2050”
2 “Farm Demographics—U.S. Farmers by Gender, Age, Race, Ethnicity, and More”

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For the 2016-2017 season, Syngenta has introduced seven new AgriPro® brand winter wheat varieties, each designed to address specific regional needs. They are listed below by category, along with the geographies where each will perform best.

  • Soft red winter varieties:
    • SY 100 has an excellent combination of high performance, high yield, and superior milling and baking qualities. (Upper Corn Belt and Mid-Atlantic regions)
    • SY Viper has a medium-early maturity, broad adaptability and a strong disease package. (Midsouth and East Coast regions)
  • Soft white winter varieties:
    • SY 944 delivers grain with excellent milling and baking qualities due to its test weight and high grain yield. (Michigan and New York)
    • SY Assure has good straw strength and a strong disease-tolerance package. (High-rainfall and irrigated production areas in Idaho, Washington and Oregon)
  • Hard red winter varieties:
    • SY Flint has high-end yield potential, good disease tolerance, and excellent test weight and straw strength. (Dryland and irrigated acres in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas)
    • SY Sunrise has excellent test weight and good winter hardiness and disease tolerance to cereal rust. (Western High Plains)
    • SY Touchstone has shown good winter hardiness and snow mold tolerance. (High-rainfall or irrigated production areas in Idaho, Washington and Oregon)

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When Vern Hawkins was a young boy, he rarely ventured beyond his rural Indiana community. Little did he know then that one day he would lead the world’s largest developer and manufacturer of crop protection products. But even today, when he travels around the globe as president of Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC, his agricultural past remains an important touchstone.

“Like most of my friends, I chose to get involved in 4-H and FFA when I was young,” says Hawkins. “Working as a farmhand for neighboring farmers and participating in those organizations gave me a deep-rooted passion for agriculture that has stayed with me throughout my life.”

History With Syngenta

Hawkins began his career at Syngenta more than 30 years ago, while he was still a student at Purdue University. Before earning a degree in agronomy, he was a sales intern for two summers with Syngenta predecessor ICI Americas (ICI). After graduation, he joined ICI full time to manage a sales territory in west-central Illinois. He then transitioned into a business-analyst role, while pursuing an executive MBA at Temple University. After earning his MBA degree, he took on a global fungicide and insecticide product management role with Zeneca Agrochemicals, based in the United Kingdom (U.K.). He later returned to the U.S. to manage the North America fungicide business and the introduction of azoxystrobin, which is now used on more than 130 crops grown in more than 100 different countries. He then went back to the U.K. to lead the global business for pyrethroid insecticides.

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In 2000, when Novartis and AstraZeneca merged their agribusinesses to form Syngenta, Hawkins became a key member of the new company’s management team. During the next 10 years, he held leadership positions in several core areas, including sales, marketing and product development. His strong work ethic, problem-solving skills and fairness to colleagues and customers alike—skills he first learned as a young farmhand—eventually earned him his current position as president of Syngenta Crop Protection and region director of North America in 2010.

Reflecting on the company’s journey so far, Hawkins says it’s the people who have made the greatest impact on Syngenta. “I think our most important achievement to date is the long-standing customer partnerships that we’ve earned, sustained and continued to build on,” he says. “Beyond our great portfolio, we have the people and relationships—with resellers, growers, suppliers, regulators and legislators—that are helping us bring the most value to the industry we serve.”

Looking Ahead

Despite today’s challenging market environment, Hawkins is excited about the future of Syngenta and American agriculture in general. “We launched three new active ingredients in 2015,” he says. “By 2020, we expect to launch five more. Any time you have a market-leading portfolio grounded in strong partnerships, the result is increased opportunity—for the industry, the channel and, ultimately, the grower.”

Hawkins is also a strong advocate for agriculture’s next generation of leaders. By supporting students in FFA and 4-H, he gives back to those groups that helped ignite his passion for the industry. “Over the next few decades, we will need leaders with a high level of knowledge and expertise to help us navigate the changing demands in agriculture,” he says. “That’s what these groups are all about.”

While market conditions, pest spectrums and his roles at Syngenta have changed over the years, Hawkins’ love of agriculture has remained constant. “I begin most days trying to figure out how to help farmers improve productivity,” he says. “It’s a privilege being part of an industry that helps feed the world.”

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Syngenta AgriPro® brand wheat, which boasts the best wheat research network in North America, is going through an exciting transition, says Carlos Iglesias, Ph.D., the company’s head of North America wheat breeding. The current work, which is taking place at different regional centers and is coordinated from the Syngenta Wheat Center of Excellence in Junction City, Kansas, may soon revolutionize the way wheat is grown.

“We are moving from developing leading conventional varieties to commercializing wheat hybrids,” Iglesias says. “We have gone through a proof of concept protocol, which has been successful, and now we’re developing the technology to launch the first hybrids by the end of this decade.”

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Most researchers agree that hybrid wheat, produced by crossing two pure lines, is the key to increasing wheat yields. That’s because the resulting hybrid generally has higher yield potential and consistency than either of its parents. Higher-yielding wheat is something the world will demand, as populations grow through the middle of this century. The World Bank estimates the output of wheat will have to climb by 60 percent from 2000 to 2050 to meet rising demand, and we are well positioned to meet that challenge.

Syngenta breeders are doing their part by re-engineering wheat from a self-pollinated crop into one that can be cross-pollinated reliably and efficiently. “We need hybrids that will deliver sustained performance improvement,” Iglesias says. “There is great expectation around hybrid wheat, and we are confident we will succeed in bringing superior hybrids to the market that will help our customers succeed and enhance the world’s capacity to feed a growing population.”

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Lee Townsend cringes when he hears media reports linking broad bee health maladies to the labeled use of neonicotinoids, especially since there’s no scientific research to back up the claims.

“If you’re hearing about neonicotinoids and the demise of bees, you’re only hearing one side of the story,” says Townsend, vice president of TPLR Honey Farms in Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada. “All this doom and gloom is not representative of the beekeeping industry.”

While neonicotinoids have been blamed for unpredictable bee deaths, and European commissioners passed a two-year restriction on neonicotinoids, years of independent monitoring show neonicotinoids, when used properly, do not harm the health of bee populations.

“When you really dig into bee health, you’ll find it’s primarily a management issue,” says Townsend, who has kept honey bees for 25 years. “If you keep bees strong and healthy with proper nutrition and disease control, the bees will take care of themselves.”

Townsend appreciates new research that’s balancing the debate on neonicotinoids, which are currently under review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR). Commissioned by Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, and Valent U.S.A., with support from Mitsui Agrochemicals, Inc., a series of comprehensive reports from AgInfomatics, LLC, an independent agricultural consulting firm, reveals some surprising facts about neonicotinoids in North American agriculture.

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“Not only did our reports show the value of neonicotinoids, but they highlighted a number of unintended consequences if neonicotinoids weren’t available,” says Pete Nowak, Ph.D., principal and co-founder of AgInfomatics. He is also the former chair and a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Environmental Studies.

Counting the Cost

Neonicotinoids were introduced in the late 1990s as an alternative to organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides, and quickly became popular among growers because of their excellent pest control. In the fall of 2013, the AgInfomatics team began evaluating neonicotinoid use in the U.S. and Canada on commodity crops (including corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, sorghum and canola) and specialty crops (including citrus, vegetables and grapes), plus turf, ornamentals and landscapes.

The researchers surveyed more than 22,000 growers, consumers and applicators in the U.S. and Canada, and reviewed in-depth pesticide use information. “Neonicotinoid seed treatments are among the most valued insect control methods in North America,” says Paul Mitchell, Ph.D., a consultant for AgInfomatics and associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “U.S. corn and soybean growers estimate neonicotinoids’ value at $12 to $13 an acre on average, while the total value of neonicotinoids in U.S. crop production ranges from $4 billion to $4.3 billion annually for the U.S. economy.”

Unintended Consequences

AgInformatics also looked at what would happen if neonicotinoids were no longer available. The study revealed many unforeseen effects, including:

  • Reduced yields. Without neonicotinoids, growers would be denied a proven, convenient method to effectively control yield-robbing pests, such as Asian citrus psyllid, aphids, whiteflies, Colorado potato beetle, wireworms, seed maggots and white grubs.
  • Higher insecticide use. Without neonicotinoids, acres treated with older, more toxic insecticides would roughly triple. In addition, findings in the reports project that the total number of pounds of active ingredients in insecticides applied to crops would increase from 13 million to 28.2 million pounds, a 116 percent increase, Mitchell notes.
  • Greater pest control challenges and resistance issues. Populations of invasive pests, like whiteflies in the southwestern U.S., will likely rise if neonicotinoids aren’t available, Nowak says. Similar trends will also occur with Asian citrus psyllid, a pest that transmits the deadly citrus greening disease, which is threatening productive trees in Florida. If pest outbreaks become more common and there are limited options then insecticide-resistance issues will also be a greater concern, says Nowak.
  • Increased operating costs. If neonicotinoids were unavailable, growers estimate that the average cost per treated acre would increase more than $8.30 for corn, $3.30 for soybeans and more than $2.20 for cotton. For a variety of different crops, this creates a projected total net cost increase of $848 million per year, captured in everything from increased spending on insecticides to costlier application methods, Mitchell says.
  • Lower-quality agricultural products. Today’s consumers are used to selecting unblemished fruits and vegetables. “A major East Coast producer and big-box-store supplier that recently tried to go without neonicotinoids learned the hard way how this can lead to more insect damage and less marketable products,” Nowak says.
  • Higher food costs. More insect damage and higher production costs will translate into rising prices at the grocery store, especially for meat, dairy and eggs, because of higher feed costs, Mitchell says.
  • Harm to beneficial insects and integrated pest management (IPM). Many growers rely on neonicotinoid seed treatments to provide targeted, systemic control that reduces the risk of insecticide exposure to beneficial insects. “IPM will suffer without the beneficial insects,” Nowak says.

Many of these unintended consequences are reportedly already occurring in the European Union, which started restricting neonicotinoids in December 2013. “There was a tremendous flea beetle outbreak in the canola-growing regions of northern Europe this fall,” says Caydee Savinelli, Ph.D., pollinator and IPM stewardship lead for Syngenta. “Growers had to spray about every week and were still losing about 20 percent to 30 percent of the crop.”

Banning neonicotinoids is not a science-based decision, because it does not address the complex interplay between crop production and beekeeping, according to a 2011 study. Jerry Bromenshenk, Ph.D., a research director at the University of Montana and CEO of Bee Alert Technology, and his fellow bee investigators fed various levels of neonicotinoids to clusters of honey-bee hives in Montana to study their effect on bee health. While improper use can lead to individual bee losses, the team did not see any effects on the hive as a whole. “It’s clear that neonicotinoids provide a better alternative than any insecticides that have been used before,” says Bromenshenk.

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Neonicotinoid seed treatments are among the most valued insect control methods in North America. U.S. corn and soybean growers estimate neonicotinoids’ value at $12 to $13 an acre on average, while the total value of neonicotinoids in U.S. crop production ranges from $4 billion to $4.3 billion annually for the U.S. economy.

Paul Mitchell

Taking the Next Steps

These facts are useful to the regulatory debate, so Syngenta has submitted AgInfomatics’ socioeconomic findings on behalf of the study sponsors to the EPA, the USDA, CDPR and PMRA in Canada. “We need to ensure that the benefits neonicotinoids provide to growers are captured and growers’ voices are heard,” says John Abbott, senior regulatory affairs team lead for Syngenta. “If we don’t speak up, we run the risk of a decision based on politics, not science.”

Abbott encourages retailers and growers to visit the Growing Matters website, which provides all 15 study reports, videos, fact sheets and infographics on the benefits of neonicotinoids, as well as tips on how to show support for these valuable crop protection products.

Townsend supports these efforts. “We don’t want to cripple the opportunities to grow safe, bountiful crops. We need to work together to find common solutions to common issues in agriculture.”

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“Many a boogeyman has spooked citrus growers over the years,” says John Taylor, coastal agronomic service representative for Syngenta. “But citrus greening and its impact on the industry isn’t folklore. It has the potential to put people out of business.”

Citrus greening, or Huanglongbing (HLB), is a systemic bacterial disease that has ravaged the citrus industries in India, China and Southeast Asia for decades. Currently, there is no cure, and citrus trees that contract the disease die in as little as five years. With symptoms that initially look very similar to nutrient deficiencies, HLB often goes undetected. By the time it is properly diagnosed, the disease has often spread to many of the surrounding trees.

Hard-to-Detect Symptoms

For U.S. growers, HLB is threatening the heart of citrus production, including Florida, Texas and, most recently, California. Because the disease has inflicted significant damage in the Florida market with 2012 yield losses hovering around 15 percent, growers in Texas and California are on high alert.

When it comes to fighting HLB, growers face some unique challenges. For starters, HLB-infected citrus trees do not show symptoms during the first year of infection, so there is a long period of time when a grower cannot visually detect an infected tree—but the tree is still a source of bacteria that can spread to other trees via the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri).

Once symptoms begin to manifest, they can resemble common nutrient deficiencies. Leaf yellowing, misshapen fruit that do not ripen, premature fruit drop and root dieback are all symptoms of HLB, which is caused by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter L. asiaticus. The bacterial infection impedes the tree’s vascular system and inhibits the movement of nutrients.

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A Dangerous Pair

Interestingly, these menacing bacteria need help to spread. “The bacterium can live and persist in a plant. But until it comes in contact with a vector, nothing really happens,” says Jim Graham, Ph.D., professor of soil microbiology at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred. “Unfortunately, that can create a period when many people do not realize the disease is on their doorstep.” However, when a vector, such as the Asian citrus psyllid, interacts with the HLB-causing bacteria, their union can quickly cause a major epidemic in the citrus industry.

The reproductive and feeding habits of the psyllid make it the perfect carrier of the bacterium. An infected or “hot” psyllid creates a localized infection when it feeds and transmits the bacterium into a citrus tree. It does not take long for the bacterium to spread throughout the plant, but the inoculum is first concentrated in the leaves and stems where the infected psyllid feeds. Female psyllids lay eggs in the same region where they feed. If these females are infected, their nymphs, which begin feeding in the infected area of the tree when they hatch, eventually acquire the bacterium, molt to the winged adult stage and disperse taking it along with them.

Once infected, psyllids are disease carriers for the rest of their lives. They can travel miles under their own power, by air currents or as hitchhikers on harvested fruit. Controlling psyllids has become one of the primary strategies to prevent the spread of HLB.

Managing an Incurable Problem

For now, there is no cure for HLB, and no resistant citrus varieties are available. Management is difficult, but certain strategies can slow the spread of the disease. These include planting disease-free nursery stock, removing infected trees, managing psyllids and promoting root health.

To make sure growers begin with HLB-free citrus trees, Florida has established a production model where all citrus seedlings must be produced in enclosed greenhouses. The overall U.S. citrus nursery industry is moving in that direction as well.

Identifying and removing infected trees are big challenges. In Florida, the disease was so widespread by the time it was detected, eradication was impractical. In California and Texas, researchers are pursuing more efficient ways to detect the disease in trees not yet exhibiting symptoms and are hoping early awareness of HLB will prevent the rapid advancement of the disease that Florida has faced.

The Way Forward

Neonicotinoid insecticides are one option for psyllid management. Growers and applicators can make neonicotinoid applications to the soil and as a foliar spray to suppress psyllids. But, as Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell, Ph.D., entomologist and director of the Lindcove Research and Extension Center for the University of California, Riverside, points out, “The real beauty of neonicotinoids is that they are anti-feedants, so psyllids don’t want to feed on trees treated with them.” This is an important factor in preventing HLB spread, because the psyllid needs to feed to pick up the bacteria.

Taylor recommends that Florida citrus growers soil-apply neonicotinoids every six weeks and in between make foliar applications of insecticides with different modes of action. Thiamethoxam, the active ingredient in Platinum® 75 SG insecticide, is a neonicotinoid with good solubility that allows for faster uptake by trees, which makes it a good choice during those times of year that are a little dry or when trees are less active.

Optimizing root health may also play a role. After initial transmission in the shoots, the HLB pathogen infects roots, where it extensively colonizes. This infection causes rapid fibrous root loss of 27 percent to 40 percent before symptoms in the canopy appear. Studies show that roots infected with Phytophthora ssp. may interact with the root bacterial infection to further damage roots.

To delay crop decline from this dual root disease threat, growers can implement a root health treatment program with Ridomil Gold® SL fungicide. Ridomil Gold has direct fungicidal activity against the Phytophthora root rot disease. Roots rapidly absorb the fungicide, which is then translocated throughout the root system, promoting root health and crop development.

One of the best weapons the citrus industry has against HLB is open communication. Growers and researchers who have experienced the disease are willing to share advice about what works and what does not.

“We’re fortunate in this industry to have so many educational opportunities and ways of getting information on HLB,” says Joby Sherrod, research & development/ technical services manager for A. Duda & Sons, Inc. “My advice? Be proactive. Do everything you can to detect HLB as early as possible and remove the infected trees, if feasible, all while managing the psyllid down to the lowest population levels possible.”

Lessons from Brazil

Citrus greening, or Huanglongbing (HLB), has impacted Brazilian citrus since 2004 when researchers first detected the disease in the southeastern part of the country. Marcos Pozzan, stewardship manager and citrus specialist in Brazil for Syngenta, has partnered with local experts and growers to help develop the country’s HLB management strategy. “We work with three pillars, none more important than the other: Produce healthy trees, manage the vector, and eliminate the inoculum source or the infected trees as soon as possible,” he says.

The U.S. citrus industry now uses much of this strategy. For example, Florida adopted Brazil’s greenhouse production infrastructure to ensure seedlings planted into citrus groves are HLB-free. Soil drenches and foliar applications of neonicotinoid insecticides play a key role in managing psyllids in both Brazil and the U.S.

The large size of Brazilian citrus farms led to the implementation of area-wide management strategies, with some encouraging results. Jim Graham, Ph.D., professor of soil microbiology at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center, describes a success story of a 14,000-acre Brazilian citrus farm that identified and removed infected trees. The farm treated its citrus, as well as the citrus of neighboring farms within two kilometers of its borders, for psyllids. Within one year, the farm cut its HLB incidence from 10 percent per year to less than 2 percent. This example and others like it are encouraging to such areas as California, where HLB has made only an isolated appearance—and Florida, where the disease has made a greater impact.

Still, Graham recommends caution. “Brazil has had Asian citrus psyllids since the 1940s, but it wasn’t until a few years ago the bacterium was introduced and caused an epidemic,” he says. “That shows how quickly it can happen—something worth remembering in citrus-producing areas of the U.S. not yet facing this epidemic.”

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Researching tomorrow’s technology for today’s crops is a time-honored tradition at the Vero Beach Research Center (VBRC), where dedicated Syngenta scientists have been unlocking the potential of plants since 1963.

“We not only believe in bringing plant potential to life, we live it,” says Jorge Cisneros, Ph.D., research and development manager at VBRC. “For 50 years, the Vero Beach facility has supported this goal, making us a key research center both in the United States and abroad.”

Syngenta invests more than $1 billion each year in research worldwide, including at VBRC. The facility has earned a reputation for combining the latest technologies with practical, hands-on field testing. Florida’s 12-month growing season allows scientists at the 240-acre center to generate multiple seasons of field data per year for a wide range of crops, including sugar cane, corn, soybeans, cotton, small-grain cereals, citrus, vegetables, and turf and ornamentals.

The region’s subtropical climate, high rainfall and sandy soils also provide ideal conditions for testing compounds for potential use as fungicides, herbicides, nematicides and insecticides. “The weather here is conducive to high pest pressure, which is critical for successful trials,” says Paul Kuhn, Ph.D., senior group leader for the disease control team at VBRC. In addition to its trial-friendly climate, VBRC also boasts several other unique advantages:

Lessons From the Field

The VBRC is one of the few locations within Syngenta worldwide where researchers can conduct studies in the lab, growth chambers, greenhouses and the field at the same time to fully characterize new products and determine how they will perform in commercial applications, Kuhn says. Finding these answers as quickly as possible is important, since CropLife America estimates that a new crop protection product can take 10 years and up to $256 million in development costs to advance from discovery to use in a grower’s fields. VBRC researchers help identify the best new products for growers to use under diverse crop, pest and weather conditions. They also conduct the extensive research required by government regulatory agencies to ensure that new products will be effective for crop producers, as well as safe for people, wildlife and the environment.

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Innovative Solutions

Through the years, VBRC scientists have played major roles in the development of key Syngenta brands and technologies. The center is involved in the critical early-stage testing of chemical and biological compounds, including investigating modes of action, identifying their spectrums of activity, determining optimal use rates, and screening for crop safety and environmental impact. “Almost every herbicide that has been registered through Syngenta has come through our facility,” says Cheryl Dunne, group leader for the weed control team at the VBRC. These products include Halex® GT herbicide and other Callisto Plant Technology® brands, as well as the Touchdown® brands and Dual Magnum® herbicides. Scientists at the center also have helped develop a number of disease-fighting products, such as Revus® and Inspire® fungicides and Maxim® Quattro seed-applied fungicide. In addition, VBRC scientists have evaluated the efficacy of many insecticides, including Warrior II with Zeon Technology®, Fulfill® and Actara®.

“We help put tools for pest management into growers’ hands,” says Clark Lovelady, group leader for the insect control team at the VBRC. “We’ve accomplished this by providing quality data and unique observations about the behavior of these compounds through lab assays, greenhouse trials and field studies.”

Solid Support

VBRC scientists go even further to answer questions and fine-tune products once Syngenta introduces them commercially. “We also collaborate with our sales force, retailers and growers to investigate unexpected outcomes and product issues, and we answer their questions quickly,” says Dunne, who has worked at the center since 1988. In addition, the scientists focus on water quality to enhance product efficacy, she adds. “We evaluate herbicide efficacy dependencies on water pH and mineral ion content, for example, so we know what water conditioners growers should use to help our products work efficiently.”

Powerful Partnerships

While Syngenta researchers conduct many tests on site, they also collaborate with university researchers across the country. Mike Owen, Ph.D., an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach weed specialist, appreciates the center’s focus on herbicide resistance management. “VBRC researchers’ collaboration with university researchers is instrumental in moving the discussion forward,” he says. “We can help educate growers through the university system, but we don’t have the leverage to facilitate changes in their behavior. Syngenta can help growers address resistance issues, directing them to diversify their approaches to weed management.”

The stability and low turnover of VBRC’s staff is also a plus, says Jim Graham, Ph.D., a professor of soil microbiology at the University of Florida. He appreciates the VBRC team’s assistance with sampling citrus groves for Phytophthora propagules, based on a protocol developed at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center to estimate fibrous root damage caused by the fungus. “I’ve worked with colleagues who have been at VBRC for a number of years and have formed working relationships that are valuable to our research program as well as to the Florida citrus industry.”

Connections With the Community

VBRC values its role as a responsible corporate citizen, from its favorable impact on the local economy to its charitable contributions and involvement in the community. “Not everything at VBRC focuses on research,” Cisneros says. “We provide training to colleagues, give tours to visitors, hold workshops and enjoy contributing to our community, from serving as science fair judges at the local school district to providing Christmas gifts to needy children in the area.”

VBRC researchers’ shared philosophy of continuous improvement is another key to success. “With our specialists’ years of experience and wide-ranging areas of expertise, we’ve been able to find an incredible synergy through diversity,” Cisneros says. “Our team believes that world-class science holds the power to find solutions to feed a growing global population and make a positive difference in the world.”