Fababean growers in Canada in the market for a granular inoculant now have their first-ever option.
Monsanto BioAg, the joint microbial marketing arm for Novozymes and Monsanto, announced Friday it will now launch TagTeam fababean granular inoculant, which picked up Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval last fall.
The product’s CFIA registration covers its dual-action use in fababean crops for nitrogen fixing and phosphate solubilizing — that is, making phosphate more soluble to improve nutrient uptake and crop yield.
The product “was developed with a specially-selected rhizobia strain to provide increased nitrogen fixation to the growing crop,” Darrell Wolkowski, Monsanto BioAg’s Canadian business lead in Saskatoon, said in a release.
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The rhizobia, Rhizobium leguminosarum, are combined with Penicillium bilaii — the active ingredient in Novozymes’ phosphate inoculant Jumpstart — which Wolkowski said “can result in more nodules being formed, and more active nitrogen fixation.”
Fababean crops, when properly inoculated, can meet their entire nitrogen requirement through nitrogen fixation, the company said.
“The synergy of the rhizobia bacteria and the P. bilaii working together creates more fixed nitrogen for optimum yield potential and the best value in an inoculant,” Wolkowski said.
The granular formulation, meanwhile, gives growers “ease of handling and application,” as the product is applied directly with the seed in the seed row using a granular applicator, the company said. — AGCanada.com Network
