Every year, the world's farmers grow enough wheat to fill a freight train stretching two-and-a-half times around the world.
Wheat
Foods made with wheat are a major part of the diet for over a third of the global population however wheat is the most susceptible of all major crops to the effects of pests, disease and our changing climate.
Wheat is the world’s largest crop, planted on some 225 million hectares however in South Africa we only plant around 500 thousand hectares of wheat and 90 thousand hectares of barley but despite this comparatively small area, it still is a very important part of our food production strategy. With bread increasing as a staple food among all denominations of a growing population, it is vital to have a plentiful supply of top quality cereal varieties that produces good yields. Meeting this demand means that average cereal yields of 2,5 tons per hectare must rise. Farmers need to make smart production choices in order to gain yield increases.
Global offer, local resources
As a leader in cereal seeds together with crop protection solutions across the entire life cycle of the cereal crop, Syngenta is developing new solutions for wheat that integrate seeds, crop protection and agronomic services to increase long-term output and profitability for the farmer while accelerating plant yield performance.
Syngenta can provide the cereal farmer with a comprehensive range of crop protection products to maximize his yield.
Weeds represent the largest challenge in obtaining higher yields in cereal production as they compete for natural resources available to the crop. Gramoxone, Preeglone and Touchdown Fortè are widely used in the crop protection program as a pre-plant weed burn down to ensure weed-free seedbeds and enable the farmer to reduce his weed population before planting his cereal seed.
Further selective herbicides such as Axial, Boxer, Peak and Topik ensure that weed-seed not controlled by the pre emergence burndown and which germinates along with the cereal seed is selectively controlled while allowing the cereal crop to develop to it’s full potential.
Insect pests and fungal diseases also affect the cereal yield potential from being realized. Syngenta’s solutions ensure that the farmers’ investment in the crop is protected from seed to harvest.
The seed care product Cruiser 600FS provides excellent control for insect pests like aphids targeting emerging cereal seedlings while Dividend seedcare ensure small seedlings are protected against soilborne fungal diseases.
Expanding chemical solutions
Syngenta introduced Bravo in 2017 for spray programs against a new fungal pathogen Ramularia collu-cygni which is threatening Barley production in South Africa. This product complements an extensive portfolio of existing fungal disease solutions such as Amistar Xtra, Artea and Tilt.
Insect pest such as Aphids are a key pest in Cereals and can rapidly multiply affecting plant health and reducing yield potential. Aphox provides control of both brown and green aphids. For the control of bollworm Syngenta offers the proven and trusted Karate Zeon and has received new registrations for Armyworm and False Armyworm in Cereals with Ampligo, Proclaim and Sorba to complete the crop protection program.
Crop growth regulators provide significant advances in optimizing cereal yields. Moddus is a recently launched product which provides the barley grower with a new technology to strengthen barley stems, ensuring that lodging is reduced under adverse weather conditions by enhancing stems to grow shorter and thicker. Additional benefits include optimized plant physiology through denser root growth for optimal water and nutrient uptake , the active ingredient also promotes more tillers and shoots to extract more performance from the barley variety.
MODDUS®. The smart growth regulator to strengthen barley and improve yields