The parade was conducted in two phases—the inspection and the march-past—lasting approximately 70 minutes. As 45 formations passed through Tiananmen Square in succession, demonstrating the powerful capabilities of the people’s armed forces and the new look of a new era, the conference room was repeatedly filled with exclamations of admiration.

Watching the parade was not only a visual spectacle but also a spiritual inspiration. Eighty years ago, the Chinese people achieved a great victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression through immense sacrifice. Eighty years later, by watching the parade, our employees deeply felt the surging strength behind national rejuvenation.

After the event, the company leadership remarked: “Patriotism is a core component of our corporate culture. This collective viewing of the parade was both a way to commemorate history and pay tribute to the martyrs, as well as a means to inspire our employees to transform their patriotic passion into motivation at work.”

Many employees expressed that their emotions remained stirred long after watching the parade. They felt profound pride in the strength of the motherland and resolved to cherish even more the peaceful environment and development opportunities enjoyed today.

Chemical Structure:

The chemical structure of Decoyinine belongs to the nucleoside class of compounds, though the specific details of its structure have not been fully disclosed. It is produced by fermentation of the plant endophytic actinomycete NEAU6 isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Paris polyphylla.

Mechanism of Action:

Decoyinine is a plant growth regulator that promotes root branching in plants. Its mechanism of action can be summarized as follows:

• Promotion of Root Branching: Decoyinine significantly stimulates the branching of plant roots, which enhances nutrient and water absorption.
• Long Duration of Effect: The growth-promoting effects of Decoyinine last for up to 60 days, providing a prolonged effect on plant development.
• Stress Resistance Enhancement: Decoyinine improves the plant’s resistance to environmental stresses such as drought, cold, and other unfavorable growth conditions.
• Prevention of Lodging: By enhancing root growth, Decoyinine helps stabilize plants, reducing the likelihood of lodging (falling over).
• Disease Resistance: Decoyinine also boosts the plant’s disease resistance, helping to protect crops from various pathogens.

Applications:

Decoyinine is effective on a wide range of crops, with particularly significant results seen in rice cultivation:

• Rice: Decoyinine promotes seedling emergence, stimulates root growth, increases tiller number, and boosts plant height. It significantly increases the number of effective panicles and grains per panicle, leading to fuller grains and higher yields. Field trials have shown that Decoyinine can increase rice yield by more than 10%. Additionally, it enhances rice’s resistance to diseases and environmental stress, while improving milling yield.
• Other Crops: Decoyinine also shows notable growth-promoting effects on other crops, including chili peppers, bok choy, eggplants, cowpeas, garlic chives, chrysanthemum, corn, potatoes, soybeans, and cotton.

Application Methods:

• Seed Soaking: Decoyinine is typically applied as a seed soaking treatment, with concentrations ranging from 150-300 times dilution.
• Spraying: It can also be applied as a foliar spray to enhance plant growth.

Formulations of Decoyinine include soluble powders, soluble granules, seed treatment liquids, and soluble liquid formulations.

Registration Status: 

Currently, Decoyinine has two registered products in China:

1. 94% Decoyinine Technical (Product No. PD20212929)
2. 1% Decoyinine Seed Treatment Liquid (Product No. PD20212921)

These registrations mean that Decoyinine is now officially available for commercial use in the Chinese market, which lays the foundation for its broader application in agriculture.

Summary and Future Development:

As a new plant growth regulator, Decoyinine has shown great potential in promoting crop growth, enhancing stress resistance, and improving yield. Although there is limited published research on its mechanism, application scope, and interactions with other plant growth regulators, its unique properties and the promising results observed in trials suggest that it will attract significant attention once it becomes more widely available.

Given the relatively limited variety of plant growth regulators compared to herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides, the introduction of a new plant growth regulatory component such as Decoyinine offers more options for agricultural production. As research and understanding of Decoyinine continue to advance, its potential applications in agriculture will expand, contributing to greater food production and sustainability.

Overall, Decoyinine is poised to become a key player in the plant growth regulator market, offering significant benefits in terms of yield increase, disease resistance, and stress tolerance, while helping to meet the growing demand for efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.

The zero increase in pesticide use includes two aspects, one is the decline in the total pesticide use, and the other is the improvement of pesticide utilization. At present, manual sprayers are used in most areas. The amount of spraying is very large, and farmers are used to using a single drug, with poor effectiveness and larger input, but the utilization rate is only about 25%, and most of them are lost to soil or air.

Organosilicon additive is a polyether modified trisiloxane non-ionic surfactant. It is an agricultural auxiliary registration-free in its application. It is an efficient and environmentally friendly non-ionic surfactant with ultra-low surface energy. Due to its good wettability, scalability, permeability, good compatibility performance, foaming, foaming and anti-foaming effects, fungicides, microbicides (mites, thrips, red spiders, aphids), herbicides, leaf fertilizers, etc. can be added to significantly improve the utilization rate and application effect in chemical control, reduce pesticide delivery by 30% to 50%, effectively reduce pesticide residues, save water, reduce labor intensity, reduce drug efficiency. It has been widely used in agricultural production, bringing fundamental changes to the formulation and application technology of pesticides.

This article expounds the characteristics, applications and use methods of Organosilicon additives, hoping to help farmers have an in-depth understanding of Organosilicon additives and use them reasonably to reduce agricultural production costs and improve prevention efficiency.

I. Excellent performance of Organosilicon additives

Organosilicon additives mainly include the following three excellent properties: wettability, expansion and permeability.

1. Good wettability

The leaves, stems and epidermis of insects of plants often have anti-humidifying components or structures, and the leaves are often negatively charged, which is repulsive to pesticide liquids. Generally speaking, when the surface tension of the spray is lower than that on the surface of the blade, the spray absorbs and wets the surface of the plant. Conversely, the spray shrinks and accumulates on the surface of the plant, and the droplets sprayed on the surface of the target object will roll down.

The surface tension of organosilicon additives is extremely low, which can easily wet almost all kinds of plant leaves and pest epidermis, greatly improve the coverage and contact surface of the drug solution to the target organisms, reduce the loss of pesticides, and improve their utilization efficiency.

2. Super Expansion

Organosilicon auxiliaries have super expansion performance. After adding the additives, the expansion area is more than 10 times the pure water area. This performance can cover and adhere to the leaves with the maximum area of the sprayed liquid, and even allow the agent to enter the pests hidden on the back of the leaves or in the cracks of fruit trees, so as to achieve the purpose of direct contact with the liquid and even killing pests.

3. Excellent permeability

Stomata are one of the main ways for reagents to enter the plant. Organosilicon additives can effectively promote the penetration of the liquid into the epidermis through the pores, and the absorption speed is very fast. It is reported that organosilicon additives have a good synergistic effect on avermectin, which is mainly reflected in its ability to allow the liquid to enter the microscopic pest hiding place, followed by the leaf surface and into the plant epidermis part, prolonging the residual effect period of the agent, and this residual period is longer than that brought about by the use of mineral oil additives.

II. Application of organosilicon additives in pesticides

Organosilicon additives are used in pesticides and can be used as spray improvers, leaf absorption additives, activators, etc., and can be used in herbicides, leaf fertilizers, pesticides or growth regulators.

1. Application in herbicides

The pesticide is added with organosilicon. After the liquid is sprayed on the surface of weed stems and leaves, it quickly passes through the cuticle and cytoplasmic membrane, and finally transmits it to all parts of the plant. After weeds are injured, the stems and leaves are curved, deformed, and eventually die, which can significantly accelerate the speed and improve the prevention of weeds. At the same time, it can greatly reduce water use and save labor.

2. Application in leaf fertilizer

Leaf fertilizer is a fast and efficient way to supplement nutrients, but the impermeability of plant epidermis to inorganic nutrient ions is very detrimental to leaf fertilization, so fertilization through stomatal osmosis is a good way. Organosilicon additives can promote the absorption of plants through stomatal penetration and improve the utilization rate of fertilizers.

3. Application in growth regulators

Organosilicon surfactants can reduce the amount of use and improve the effect. For example, gibberellin is widely used in citrus, but it is easy to antagonize with citrus. The application of agricultural organosilicon additives can greatly improve the efficacy of gibberellin, and the dosage of gibberellin can also be reduced to 1/10. Adding organosilicon auxiliaries to azole can improve its moisture and efficacy, reduce the use of energistic azole, and reduce the cost of energicile azole.

2.4 Insecticides and mites

Application in the dosage

The stomata of insects are very similar to those on the leaf surface. Organosilicon surfactants can reduce the surface tension of the solution and penetrate into the insect trachea, making it of great significance as an insecticide additive and synergist. If the organosilicon additive is added, the effect of 20% butylthiogram Budweiser emulsion 45g/hm2 treatment on aphids is the same as that of the addition of the additive. The dosage of 75g/hm2 is equivalent, which can significantly reduce the actual field use dose of butylsulfek Budweiser emulsion by 20%.

III. How to use organosilicon auxiliaries efficiently

1. Dosage

Under normal conditions with a temperature of 25 °C and a relative air humidity of 60%, the amount of spray added to the herbicide is 0.05%-0.1% (1000-2000 times) organosilicon additives, and the dosage of herbicides is reduced by 30%, which is similar to the conventional dosage of herbicides. Under dry conditions, organosilicon add 0.1% of the spray amount of the herbicide solution can achieve a stable herbics removal effect.

The amount of insecticides and fungicides is 0.025%-0.1% (1000-4000 times) of organosilicon additives. The conventional dose for pesticides can increase the retention time of fog droplets, improve the dispersion of fog droplets, and increase the absorption of reagents, thus improving the efficacy of the drug.

The amount of plant growth regulator is 0.025%-0.05% (2000-4000 times) of the spray, and the amount of fertilizer and trace elements is 0.015%-0.1% (1000-7000 times) of the spray amount, which can improve the efficacy and fertilizer effect.

2. Principles of use (scope of use)

Organosilicon auxiliaries work well, but the price is also relatively high compared with other auxiliaries. Especially imported from abroad, it is about 100 yuan/kg, which is slightly cheaper in China, but it is also four times the price of conventional additives. Therefore, in the process of use, it is also necessary to pay attention to the principles of use, which works well and which are not necessary to reduce costs.

2.1 Try to use it on hard-wetting crops, and do not use wetting crops.

For vegetables and fruits that are easy to be wet, such as rape, celery, tomatoes, spinach, beans, peppers, etc., conventional additives can meet the requirements of moistening crops. In order to reduce costs, it is generally not necessary to use organosilicon additives; for some crops made of waxy layers such as rice, cabbage, wheat, sparrow wheat, etc., and those weeds without leaves, only green spikes such as canary flowers, violets, thatch, etc. The use of organosilicon auxiliaries can improve the efficacy and have a comprehensive prevention and control effect.

2.2 Crops suitable for hiding pests and diseases

When there are hidden pests or germs such as grapes, lychees, longan and other fruits or broccoli, add organosilicon additives and use its super paving ability to make the liquid penetrate deep into the back of the leaves or the pest cache of fruit trees, so as to eliminate pests or control germs.

2.3 Crops suitable for rainy areas

For some rainy areas, the use of organosilicon additives can maximize the moisture and spread of the liquid, enhance surface permeability, resist rain erosion, and greatly reduce the accidental flushing of expensive pesticides by rainwater, thus reducing agricultural capital.

2.4 Suitable for some ultraviolet sensitivitPesticides or spraying in strong summer light

For pesticides such as methylaminoavermectin benzoate and avermectin, they are sensitive to ultraviolet rays. The addition of organosilicon additives use their super-strong spreading ability and rapid almost instantaneous stotal absorption to avoid the photolysis of the liquid and the rapid evaporation and drying of the liquid, and promote the absorption of the liquid.

2.5 Pay attention to reasonable mixing

The use of some additives has an inhibitory effect on organosilicon; there are many dosage forms of pesticide products, and there are many types of additives or processing additives used in the dosage forms. Some emulsifiers are antagonistic to organosilicon and cannot be used together. In addition, acidic compound emulsifiers such as 2201# and 0206B# are also best not used, because they are not conducive to the stability of organosilicon-oxygen bonds.

IV. Precautions for use

1. Strictly grasp the use concentration and strictly control the dosage. The suitable concentrations for mixing organosilicon additives with different types of pesticides are: 0.025%-0.1% pesticides, fungicides 0.015%-0.05%, herbicides 0.025%-0.15%, plant growth regulators 0.025%-0.05%, and some powerful pesticides and herbicides should be taken to reduce their dosage to prevent drug pests.

2. It cannot be applied under high temperature conditions. When the temperature exceeds 30°C, it is best not to add organosilicon when spraying pesticides. At this time, the crop stomatal opening is large, coupled with strong activity of organosilicon auxiliaries, strong permeability and easy to cause drug harm to crops. When spraying medicine on the fruit tree, do not spray it directly on the fruit to prevent rust spots and rust spots. It is best to apply it after bagging the fruit.

3. Ready for use. Organosilicon additives are very easy to decompose under acidic and base conditions, and most pesticide preparations are obviously acidic. Therefore, organosilicon additives must be mixed with pesticides when using organosilicon additives.

4. Add an appropriate amount of antifoaming agent. Organosilicon additives are active and easy to produce excessive foam. When applied, it must be finally added to the sprayer bucket and avoid excessive stirring, which can reduce the amount of foam. Among them, the antifoaming agent composed of organosilicon-based emulsion particle silica is the best effect.

5. Selection of additives

The quality of organosilicon additives provided on the market is of different, and at least 90% of the active ingredient of trisiloxane polyether should be selected to ensure its excellent performance.

Organosilicon additives have very low surface tension, super paving ability and rapid absorption through pores. Rational use of organosilicon additives can reduce the amount of pesticides, improve the effective utilization rate of pesticides, reduce production costs, and reduce the environmental pollution of pesticides.

However, there are two aspects in everything. Improper application of organosilicon additives may also lead to drug harm, such as some crops with thin waxy layers and are prone to moisture, or unauthorized use concentrations to increase efficiency. In addition, the surface tension of organosilicon is extremely low and the permeability is strong. After entering the water, it is highly toxic to fish, which is easy to damage the gill function. After use, its farmland water prevents it from flowing into the aquaculture pond.

Therefore, when using organosilicon additives, you must keep in mind the amount of use, precautions and principles of use, make the best use of the goods, give full play to its due effect according to its use characteristics, and must not use it blindly.

For more details, please contact the sales dept for product information.

The years echo like a song, and gorgeous light shines around like a dream; the years flow like water, and the time swishes by. The year of 2022 was marked with an end of the epidemic control. This year was unforgettable for the country, difficult for foreign trade people, and even more challenging for Hongze people. However, we worked together and handed in a gratifying answer sheet while looking back at this moment.
In the afternoon of January 29, 2023, all the employees celebrated together, recalling the past and making plans for the future.

Heads of each department shared the achievements of the department during the past year and settled down the intentions for the coming year, and at the same time, put forward many suggestions and personal opinions valuable for the future development of the company.
After the expansion of the factory, the production has been greatly improved and the varieties have been updated continuously, which is the fundamental for Hongze people to deliver a perfect answer in the difficult year. In the future, R&D, technology and production will still be the top priorities in Hongze’s planning blueprint.

Sales will always struggle on the front line, and keeping a clear sense of the market needs could only be realized from the constant communications with all parties. The Sales Director shared the basic trends and sales results of each market for the whole year of 2022. The Head of Overseas company shared the market overview and demand shift of the neighboring countries in Southeast Asia during the epidemic. The Purchasing Director also made a detailed summary and conclusion of the major adjustments in the way the department worked in the previous year.
Finally, Mr. Chen Hong Hua, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Ms. Sun Lijuan, General Manager of the company, delivered speeches to recognize the efforts of everyone and motivate everyone to cherish the opportunities after the epidemic and move forward steadily in the coming year.

Then, in the much-awaited lucky draw, along with the opening of the red envelope, the lucky winners were all smiles.

In 2022, the team of Hongze is growing along with its performance, and fresh blood has been injected into each department. The future is always for young people. Coming along with the special social background of the epidemic, the newcomers all had a thousand emotions to share urgently after nearly a year of teamwork. They shared their unique insights from perspectives of personal, team, and the entire agrochem field. The meeting room was filled with applause for them.

2022 is a year of advancement and a year of harvest. After plant was expanded, redecoration of office is finished at the end of the year. The new office feels much more comfortable and convenient.

The plague of the epidemic has passed. There will be more opportunities in the coming year. We need to get ready for the coming opportunities right before they come. It is expected that the group could make steady efforts in the coming year, and continue to make progress.

The process EPA uses for evaluating the potential for health and ecological effects of a pesticide is called risk assessment. This page provides a brief introduction to the Pesticide Program’s risk assessment program and includes links to additional information.

Risk assessment is crucial to the process of making decisions about pesticides, both new and existing:

New pesticides must be evaluated before they can enter the market.
Existing pesticides must be re-evaluated periodically to ensure that they continue to meet the appropriate safety standard.

The decision process is part of a risk management process, which is conducted in registration for new pesticide chemicals or new uses of existing chemicals, or registration review in the case of a general review of an existing chemical.On this page:

• Ecological risk assessment
• Human health risk assessment
• Assessing pesticide cumulative risk
• Models, databases, and guidelines
• For more information

Ecological Risk Assessment

EPA conducts ecological risk assessments to determine what risks are posed by a pesticide and whether changes to the use or proposed use are necessary to protect the environment. Many plant and wildlife species can be found near or in cities, agricultural fields, and recreational areas. Before allowing a pesticide product to be sold on the market, we ensure that the pesticide will not pose any unreasonable risks to plants, wildlife and the environment. We do this by evaluating data submitted in support of registration regarding the potential hazard that a pesticide may present to non-target plants, fish, and wildlife species. In addition, EPA reviews studies available in the open literature.

Planning – Planning and scoping process
EPA begins the process of an ecological risk assessment with planning and research.

Planning – Planning and scoping process
EPA begins the process of an ecological risk assessment with planning and research.
Phase 1 – Problem formulation
Information is gathered to help determine what plants and animals are at risk and need to be protected.
Phase 2 – Analysis
This is the determination of what plants and animals are exposed and to what degree they are exposed, and whether or not that level of exposure is likely to cause harmful ecological effects.
Phase 3 – Risk characterization
Risk characterization includes two major components: risk estimation and risk description. “Risk estimation” combines exposure profiles (i.e., the findings of exposure characterization) and effects from exposure. “Risk description” provides information important for interpreting the risk results and identifies a level for harmful effects on the plants and animals of concern.

For more information on ecological risk assessment in the Pesticide Program see:

For more information on ecological risk assessment in the Pesticide Program see:
A brief overview of ecological risk assessment
Technical overview of ecological risk assessment
Process for assessing pesticide risks to endangered species

Human Health Risk Assessment

A human health risk assessment is the process to estimate the nature and probability of adverse health effects in humans who may be exposed to chemicals in contaminated environmental media, now or in the future. Human health risk assessments address questions such as:

• What types of health problems are caused by pesticides in the environment?
• What is the chance that people will experience problems when exposed to different levels of pesticides?
• Is there a low level below which some chemicals don’t pose a human health risk?
• What pesticides are people exposed to and for how long?
• Are legal limits for pesticide residues in food (tolerances or maximum residue limits) protective of human health?
• Are people more likely to be susceptible or exposed to pesticides because of factors such as age, genetics, pre-existing health conditions, ethnic practices, gender, where they work, where they play, what they eat, etc.

EPA uses the National Research Council’s four-step process for its human health risk assessments:
Step 1 – Hazard Identification
Examines whether a substance has the potential to cause harm to humans and/or ecological systems, and if so, under what circumstances.
Step 2 – Dose Response Assessment
Examines the numerical relationship between exposure and effects.
Step 3 – Exposure Assessment
Examines what is known about the frequency, timing, and levels of contact with a substance.
Step 4 – Risk Characterization
Examines how well the data support conclusions about the nature and extent of the risk from exposure to pesticides.
For more information on human health risk assessment in the Pesticide Program, see:
A brief overview of assessing health risks from pesticides
EPA’s Risk Assessment Process for Tolerance Reassessment
Available information on assessing exposure from pesticides in food—A User’s Guide

Assessing Pesticide Cumulative Risk

The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 required EPA to conduct a new type of risk assessment for pesticides that were found to have a common mechanism of toxicity. A common mechanism of toxicity is identified when two or more chemicals or other substances cause a common toxic effect(s) by the same, or essentially the same, sequence of major biochemical events. This new assessment is called a cumulative risk assessment and is designed to evaluate the risk of a common toxic effect associated with concurrent exposure by all relevant pathways and routes of exposure to a group of chemicals that share a common mechanism of toxicity. Read more about cumulative risk assessment.

Models, Databases, and Guidelines

The risk assessment process depends on having appropriate data and using well tested models. Data required for pesticide registration are found in 40 CFR Part 158. EPA also has guidelines for how testing is to be conducted, which are harmonized into a single set of guidelines to minimize variations among the testing procedures that must be performed to meet the data requirements under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 U.S.C. 2601) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136 et seq.).
EPA’s test guidelines also are harmonized with those established by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Harmonized test guidelines reduce the burden on chemical producers and conserve scientific resources, including the minimal use of laboratory test animals. They also form a basis for work sharing and cooperation among all OECD countries. EPA accepts data developed based on an OECD test guideline.

For more information on Models, Databases, and Guidelines in the Pesticide Program, see:
Information about EPA’s data requirements for pesticide registration
Listing of models and databases commonly used by EPA’s Pesticide Program
Harmonized test guidelines
Harmonized OECD test guidelines

For More Information

Risk Assessment
Human Health Issues Related to Pesticides

André Moraes
Head of Product Development, Crop Science Division, Latin America

Since the turn of the 21st century, technological developments have provided humankind with tools that have become important allies of man in many fields, from the development of industry to medicine. Agriculture is no different, and we are only scratching the surface of what’s possible!Technology, has been transforming our lives for hundreds of years. Long before smartphones; technological progress brought us the press, the locomotive, the first car, the radio, and other countless “innovations” which today seem archaic to us.Still, it is undeniable that with the creation of the computer, in the 1940s, and the Internet in 1969, evolution has been taking place at a much faster rate. Technology use has drastically changed the world and the way we have lived the past 70 years. From the convenience of the 3D printer to the incredible ability to perform surgery on a heart with the aid of nanosensors, technology is helping us solve countless problems in infinite scenarios.Agriculture is certainly part of this evolution. In the field, technology is an indispensable ally in the face of challenges such as natural resource scarcity and a growing world population. We have witnessed undeniable transformations in this millennial activity that is no longer limited to the “sowing, caring, harvesting” process, but rather has evolved into a complex set of practices that include data analysis with image processing and interpretation software, climate monitoring tools in the plantations, and even robots that check nutrients in the soil on the eve of planting.Such progress, of course, is only possible because the industry has been investing more and more in research, which results in innovation. For example, insofar as pest and disease control in crops is concerned, we can see important technologies that enhance pesticide use. Among these new solutions, it is important to highlight the fundamental role played by drones.

Studies are already underway to understand how this technology can also be useful in pesticide application doses. For example, in the fruit and vegetable market, one of the strongest in Latin America, low volumes and more accurate applications will help farmers not only to optimize costs but also to overcome several safety and international trade barriers. Many of these crops – such as pineapple, bananas, grapes, and other delicate fruits – still rely on the use of backpack pesticide sprayers because it is not possible to use heavy machinery to access the plantations without harming the fruit . Coffee plantations on complex terrains such as hills and slopes may also benefit from technology, keeping farmers from being exposed to risks during application and the dangers associated to the topography they have to work in.

It is also worth considering the efficiency technology affords; preliminary research conducted by different institutions shows a drastic reduction in application time per hectare. To me, this is an even more important step forward because it benefits farmers directly. We are talking about shifting from 12 hour to tare of applications, an activity that exhausts a person wearing a backpack pesticide sprayer, to potentially a mere 15 minutes to tare drone flight. By the way, the device could be controlled by the very person who used to wear the backpack. This incredible reduction in the time per hectare has already been achieved in rice fields in China, and has improved the lives of those who use to walk the field long hours carrying sprayers on their backs.

Although it is a pilot project in Latin America, I believe deploying drones to apply products or as a data collection tool will be the latest stage in an agricultural revolution that everyone thought ended when automatic harvesters and driverless tractors were introduced. Not without reason, a survey conducted by the PwC consultancy firm found that the market for solutions involving drones in agriculture will reach $32.4 billion worldwide by 2020?

At Bayer, we believe that innovation in agriculture is essential to improving the way we produce food. Technological advances have never stopped and have shown that human ingenuity can always find solutions to the challenges we face. The latest advancements in agriculture and the work that is taking place only reinforce a historically proven fact: When humans and machines are dedicated to a common good, the outcome is always amazing!

When visiting the grocery store or deciding what to plant in your garden, you might notice the multitude of vegetable varieties. A perfect example is the pepper. Jalapeño, bell, habanero, poblano, cayenne, serrano – it is usually easy to tell them apart based on their shapes, sizes, colors and tastes. Beyond using your five senses, different varieties can be distinguished by their abilities to withstand challenging growing environments and use natural resources more efficiently. But did you know that many peppers were bred through traditional and advanced breeding techniques for a specific reason?

For example, the roulette pepper is a red habanero that has been bred to maintain fruity flavor of a traditional habanero without the heat. The mini bell pepper was created as a way to reduce food waste when an entire large bell pepper would leave leftovers. Additionally, many of the world’s hottest peppers were bred to withstand water restrictions – a mechanism used to stress the peppers increasing their capsaicin production.

Plant breeding, in its simplest definition, is crossing two plants to produce offspring that, ideally, share the best characteristics of the two parent plants. Throughout the history of civilization, plant breeding has helped farmers solve complex challenges while also appeasing the appetites of consumers.

Most of the fruits and vegetables we eat today are the result of generations of plant breeding. In fact, some of the most popular fruits and vegetables originated from plants that would be almost unidentifiable now. Cabbage, kale, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli and kohlrabi all share a common ancestor in the wild yellow mustard plant. Carrots were originally yellow and purple, and watermelons began as a small, bitter fruit.

Grains are no different, though their varieties can be a little harder to spot. Corn as we know it originated from Teosinte, a plant with small, thin “cobs” covered in kennels so hard they would crack your teeth. Today, we have different varieties of corn to suit different purposes.

Sweet corn is bred for both taste and appearance. Plant scientists work to ensure each cob is packed from end-to-end with sweet, soft, juicy kernels, making it look as good as it tastes. Popcorn is another type of corn altogether. Its tough outer shell and low soft starch content make it great for this favorite movie-time snack.

In addition, corn is optimized for more than just human consumption. Dent corn, or field corn, is bred to contain higher levels of starch. This corn is used for animal feed, syrup production and conversion to ethanol for fuel. Even within the dent corn family, there are several different varieties that are bred for increased nutritional benefits to livestock and ease of syrup or fuel production.

All plants, whether grain, fruit or vegetable, also have varieties that improve their chances in the field. Many plants are bred to withstand drought and use natural resources like water more efficiently. Additionally, Bayer is exploring the possibilities of short stature grains to protect crops from severe weather and strong winds.

There are many ways to ensure a certain trait is present in a plant. As innovations advance the fields of science and agriculture, plant breeders use technologies like marker assisted breeding to create new plant varieties and hybrids in more efficient and precise ways than in years past. Leveraging these innovations, we’re working to improve the lives of consumers and farmers alike by creating more sustainable, resource efficient and nutritious crops.