CONVISO® SMART – an innovative approach of weed control in sugar beet

KWS SAAT SE and Bayer CropScience AG are jointly developing and commercializing an innovative system of weed control in sugar beet for the global market under the name of CONVISO SMART. The technology is based on the breeding of sugar beet cultivars that are tolerant to herbicides of the ALS-inhibitor-class with a broad-spectrum weed control. This will give farmers a new opportunity to make sugar beet cultivation easier, more flexible in its timing and more efficient. The use of CONVISO, as new herbicide in sugar beet, will make it possible to control major weeds with low dose rates of product and reduced number of applications in the future. The tolerance is based on a change in the enzyme acetholactate synthase, which is involved in the biosynthesis of essential amino acids. This variation can occur spontaneously during cell division. During the development, sugar beets with this spontaneously changed enzyme were specifically selected and used for further breeding of CONVISO SMART cultivars. As such, these varieties are not a product of genetic modification. Field studies with CONVISO SMART hybrids showed complete crop selectivity and a broad and reliable efficacy against a large range of major weeds. The bio-dossier for an EU-wide registration of CONVISO was submitted in April in 2015. The variety inscription process is in preparation in different countries. The system CONVISO SMART is scheduled to be available to farmers in 2018 at the earliest.

Spirotetramat causes an arrest of nematode juvenile development

Spirotetramat (Movento™, Bayer CropScience) (SPT), an effective insecticide, has also demonstrated potential activity as a nematicide. No significant effects on hatching rates of Caenorhabditis elegans, Meloidogyne incognita or Heterodera glycines were observed when eggs were soaked in a maximum concentration of 105 ppm of technical grade spirotetramat-enol (SPT-enol), the active form in plants. Synchronised first-stage juveniles of C. elegans soaked in SPT-enol concentrations as low as 30 ppm demonstrated arrested juvenile development with calculated EC95 of 44-48 ppm. Single applications of formulated SPT (Movento 240SC) were applied to plant foliage at the labelled insecticidal rate of 87.6 g a.s. ha−1 at 1-week intervals on soybean plants inoculated with H. glycines or tomato plants inoculated with M. incognita in glasshouse tests. SPT consistently inhibited nematode development to reproductive maturity when applied at 1-2 weeks after inoculation. Optimal SPT application timings coincide with early stages of root infection, when nematodes are still in vulnerable juvenile stages.

PENGARUH ATRIBUT PRODUK PESTISIDA ANTRACOL 70 WP TERHADAP KEPUASAN PETANI PADI PADA PT. BAYER CROPSCIENCE (Studi Kasus: Desa Bah Jambi II Kecamatan Tanah Jawa Kabupaten Simalungun)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh harga, desain produk, dan kualitas produk terhadap kepuasan konsumen petani padi pada produk pestisida Antracol PT Bayer CropScience . Penelitian ini dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan metode total sampling yang berjumlah 50 orang petani Teknik pengumpulan data diperoleh dengan cara observasi, dan angket (kuesioner) yang pengukurannya menggunakan skala Likert. Dan diolah secara statistik dengan metode Analisis Regresi Berganda dengan persamaan struktural Y= a + b1 X1 + b2 X2 + b3 X3 serta diolah dengan menggunakan SPSS17.00 for windows. Dari hasil data maka diperoleh persamaan analisis regresi berganda Y = 3,352 + 0,359 X1 + 0,184 X2 + 0,519 X3. Kontribusi variabel bebas terhadap variabel terikat diketahui dengan koefisien determinan (Rsquare) dengan hasil sebesar 75,5% dan sisanya sebesar 24,5% dijelaskan oleh variabel lain. Harga, desain produk dan kualitas produk berpengaruh secara simultan terhadap kepuasan konsumen produk antracol 70 WP kepada petani Desa Bah Jambi II Kecamatan Tanah Jawa Kabupaten Simalungun. Hal ini terlihat dari Fhitung > Ftabel yaitu 47,318 > 2,79 pada ɑ = 5%. Secara parsial harga berpengaruh terhadap kepuasan konsumen dengan nilai thitung > ttabel yaitu 5,424 > 2,001, desain produk berpengaruh terhadap kepusan konsumen dengan nilai thitung > ttabel yaitu 2,674 > 2,001, dan kualitas produk berpengatuh terhadap kepuasan konsumen thitung > ttabel yaitu 6,426 > 2,001. Dengan demikian hipotesis dalam penelitian ini dapat diterima yaitu ada pengaruh harga, desain produk dan kualitas produk terhadap kepuasan konsumen pada produk antracol 70 WP di kalangan petani padi Desa Bah Jambi II. Kata kunci: Harga, Desain Produk, Kualitas Produk, Kepuasan Konsumen.

First Report on Resistance to Pyraclostrobin, Thiophanate-methyl, Fenhexamid and Boscalid in Botrytis cinerea from Eucalyptus Seedlings in Florida Greenhouses

Botryotinia fuckeliana de Bary (anamorph Botrytis cinerea Pers.) is an ubiquitous plant pathogen causing gray mold disease on more than 200 crops grown in the field or in greenhouses. Eucalyptus seedlings originating from three different greenhouses showing stem lesions were submitted to the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center Disease Clinic in June 2012. Ten single spore isolates of B. cinerea were obtained and tested for sensitivity using spore germination and germ tube elongation assays described previously (4). Fungicides tested were pyraclostrobin at 100 μg/ml (Cabrio, BASF, Research Triangle Park, NC), thiophanate-methyl at 100 μg/ml (Topsin-M, UPI, King of Prussia, PA), fenhexamid at 1 and 50 μg/ml (Elevate, Arysta Life Sciences, Cary, NC), fludioxonil at 0.1 and 10 μg/ml (Medallion, Syngenta Crop Protection, Research Triangle Park, NC), and iprodione at 5 and 50 μg/ml (Rovral, Bayer CropScience, Greensboro, NC) on 1% malt extract agar (MEA, 10 g malt extract and 15 g agar), and to cyprodinil at 1 and 25 μg/ml (Vanguard, Syngenta Crop Protection) on 0.5% sucrose agar (4). Sensitivity to the succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs) boscalid at 5 μg/ml (Endura, BASF), penthiopyrad at 1 and 3 μg/ml (Fontelis, DuPont Crop Protection, Willington, DE), and fluopyram at 3 μg/ml (Luna Privilege, Bayer CropScience) was evaluated on yeast bacto acetate agar (YBA) (3). The discriminatory dose for boscalid was adapted from (2) whereas those used for penthiopyrad and fluopyram were developed in this study. Isolates were grown on malt yeast extract agar for 7 to 10 days and spore suspensions were prepared in sterile distilled water and diluted to 106 conidia/ml. Respective media in 9-cm petri dishes were seeded with 7-μl droplets from each isolate allowing testing for all isolates on one plate. Two plates were used for each fungicide and sensitivity tests were repeated twice. Germination and germ tube growth were assessed microscopically after 16 to 24 h incubation at 22°C. The frequency of isolates resistant to two, three, and four fungicides was 90, 60, and 10%, respectively. Nine isolates (90%) were resistant to thiophanate-methyl and pyraclostrobin, simultaneously, whereas six (60%) and two isolates (20%) were resistant to boscalid and fenhexamid, respectively. All boscalid-resistant isolates were also resistant to pyraclostrobin and thiophanate-methyl, but one fenhexamid-resistant isolate was sensitive to the other three fungicides. Eight isolates that germinated at 5 μg/ml iprodione but not at 50 μg/ml were considered sensitive. All isolates were sensitive to the SDHIs penthiopyrad and fluopyram as well as to cyprodinil and fludioxonil. To our knowledge, this is the first report of resistance to pyraclostrobin, thiophanate-methyl, fenhexamid, and boscalid in B. cinerea from eucalyptus seedlings in Florida. The absence of resistance to fludioxonil and iprodione is likely because these fungicides are not registered in nurseries as well as fluopyram and penthiopyrad which were developed only recently. Management practices should be developed to limit the selection and spread of additional resistant populations in eucalyptus nurseries as has occurred in Florida strawberries where multi-fungicide resistance is widespread (1). References: (1) A. Amiri et al. Plant Dis. 97:393, 2013. (2) M. Leroch et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 79:159, 2013. (3) G. Stammler and J. Speakman. J. Phytopathol. 154:508, 2006. (4) R. W. S. Weber and M. Hahn. J. Plant Dis. Prot. 118:17, 2011.