The Syngenta Seedcare Institute Focuses on Quality and Support
This state-of-the-art facility drives value for customers by focusing on products, application and service.
During a training session at the Seedcare Institute, Wanderson Oliveira (far right), Syngenta Seedcare platform specialist, explains best practices of handling treated seeds at planting to a group of customers.
By Darcy Maulsby / Photography by Tim Pearson
Proven active ingredients seem like the most important part of a seed treatment, but there are other practical considerations, too. Will the treatment dust off or stick to the seed? What’s the right polymer to use to make sure the treated seed flows easily through the farm machinery? How can multiple seed treatments be combined effectively on one seed?
These questions drive Ravi Ramachandran, Ph.D., head of the Syngenta North America Seedcare Institute, and his team.
The @SyngentaUS Seedcare Institute drives value for customers by focusing on products, application and service.
“Providing proven seed treatments is like baking a delicious cake,” Ramachandran says. “You need a recipe, and you need to know how to combine the ingredients properly.”
The process starts in Stanton, Minnesota, at the North American Seedcare Institute, a $20 million, state-of-the-art facility that opened in September 2016. “This is the most sophisticated technology center of its kind in the industry,” Ramachandran says. “Delivering value to our customers drives our three-pillar approach.”
Quality-testing equipment at the Seedcare Institute evaluates rub-off from treated seeds.
Known as P.A.S., this three-pillar offer includes:
Products. Through lab-to-land testing, the Seedcare Institute team evaluates the compatibility of polymers, colorants and active ingredients. “Since Syngenta Seedcare incorporates fungicides, insecticides, nematicides, biologicals and micronutrients, we make sure the right components get on the seed and stay on the seed from treatment through planting,” Ramachandran says.
Application. Product testing includes climate-simulation chambers that reflect growing conditions from the Carolinas to California. “We want to make sure that no matter where you plant, you’ll have a good experience with Syngenta Seedcare products,” Ramachandran says. “Our proprietary application testing also ensures a disruption-free application season at the retail treater locations.”
Services. Growers and retailers find the seed-protection answers they need at the Seedcare Institute. Every year, the team provides two-day “spring training” sessions to help retailers and seed dealers learn how to apply seed treatments properly. “We also go to customers’ sites to work with them,” says Ramachandran, who adds there are 14 locations worldwide within the Syngenta global Seedcare Institute network.
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Syngenta Seedcare Institute Focuses on Quality and Support: Ravi Ramachandran, Ph.D., head of the North America Seedcare Institute (SCI) in Stanton, Minnesota, conducts a compatibility test of soybean treatment recipe components.
Syngenta Seedcare Institute Focuses on Quality and Support: Ramachandran reviews the equipment parameters on the Cimbria Heid treater in preparation for a large-scale seed treatment application experiment.
Syngenta Seedcare Institute Focuses on Quality and Support: Treated soybean seed at SCI feature customized colors representing customer brands.
Syngenta Seedcare Institute Focuses on Quality and Support: These containers show the rainbow of colors SCI experts can custom blend.
Syngenta Seedcare Institute Focuses on Quality and Support: Wanderson Oliveira, Seedcare platform specialist at SCI, shows the below-ground benefits of using seed treatments. The container to the left shows healthy root growth from treated seed, while the container to the right shows stunted root growth from untreated seed.
“Providing proven seed treatments is like baking a delicious cake. You need a recipe, and you need to know how to combine the ingredients properly.”
“It’s a much different approach than our competitors,” he concludes. “We want people’s experience to be trouble-free and give them confidence in the effectiveness and high quality of our Seedcare solutions.”
