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Herbicides and safeners – a reliable team
How does a crop protection agent know that it needs to spare the crop and control the weeds? Dr. Chris Rosinger and his team from Bayer CropScience (BCS) have found an answer to this question, and that answer is safeners. These substances are added to crop protection agents to protect crops from the damaging effects of herbicides.
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| Screening: Scientists grow corn plants in the greenhouse to test the activity of safeners. |
The head of the BCS research group working on safener technology explains: “When new crop protection agents are developed, botanists, biochemists and chemists work together to identify safeners which help the crop to withstand the herbicide better and help plants to decompose the herbicide as rapidly as possible.” The search for these substances is not an easy one. It can take some time to find the ideal combination of safener and herbicide.
Researchers at Bayer CropScience have been working successfully since the mid-1970s on safeners for foliar herbicides which are applied after the plant has germinated and control weeds via the plant’s leaves.
The acquisition of Aventis Crop Science has made Bayer the world’s leading supplier of safener products, and that’s a position the company intends to maintain. Rosinger says: “We are currently testing new substance groups which we hope will lead to new products in the medium term.” What is special about these substances is that they can be used both to treat seed and for foliar application. Rosinger is confident that the tests will be successful: “We’ve got a good team made up of experts from various disciplines and from different parts of the world. And we all want the same thing: success.”
Rosinger is devoted to his research. “I was fascinated by nature even as a child. I was happiest when I was among plants. It was an exciting place to be, and one from which I learned constantly.” Now he immerses himself in that world every time he enters his greenhouses. “My curiosity and excitement are the same even now. You never know what you’ll find in there. Success or failure – sometimes they can be a hair’s breadth apart.”
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