Syngenta Crop Protection division expects its EQUENTO® seed treatment to bring next-level sustainability in pest control while promoting healthy plant establishment
Syngenta Crop Protection’s Seedcare business has introduced EQUENTO®, a novel seed treatment that aims to provide control of various soil pests and help growers increase the sustainability of their farm operations.
EQUENTO® is based on Syngenta’s PLINAZOLIN® technology and is applied onto seeds, protecting the crop right from the start of growth.
Based on a new mode of action (IRAC Group 30), it breaks the critical rise in insect resistance, while offering precise control of a broad variety of soil pests – including difficult-to-control pests such as the wireworm and the red-legged earth mite.
The seed treatment can be applied across multiple crops including cereals and canola.
Among the key benefits EQUENTO® is expected to bring will be its ability to increase the sustainability of both the seed and plant. This seed treatment is expected to be effective at very low dose rates and is not easily soluble or mobile in soil.
These attributes if realised will provide precise and effective pest control in the area immediately surrounding a plant’s roots and ensures healthier roots that contribute to better soil health and biodiversity.
This seed treatment promises to give growers greater flexibility in farming decisions – ranging from application timings, and dose rates to choices of mixtures with other insecticides and fungicides.
It is expected to be effective even in low soil temperatures, controlling pests that either ingest or come in contact with the plant, and reducing pest populations in the soil.
In addition, EQUENTO® has been designed to target specificity, meaning it will enable growers to precisely tailor their dose rates to meet particular pest challenges.
“EQUENTO®‘s combination of a novel mode of action, broad spectrum pest control, as well as superior seed and crop safety reflects Syngenta’s commitment to innovation,” said Jonathan Brown, Global Head of Syngenta Seedcare.
“It transforms the ability of farmers to manage wireworms and other hard-to-control pests, establish a healthy young crop crucial for good yields while protecting soil health, biodiversity and the planet.”
Insects and soil pests pose significant challenges to growers, threatening both yields as well as the quality of harvests by harming the crop as well as opening pathways for disease.
Their ability to constantly evolve, coupled with the impact of climate change that has propelled shifts in the insect pressure and spectrum farmers face, have increased the urgency for innovative solutions that protect the grower’s ability to grow productively and sustainably.
An estimated 600 species of insects are already deemed resistant to at least one insecticide. Syngenta will mark its global launch of EQUENTO® in Australia later this year, under the trademark EQUENTO® Extreme.
Further registrations are expected to follow in other markets worldwide.
