A series of regional conferences “Farmera” Direction Innovation is behind us. In February this year we met with farmers in four locations: Swarzędz, Wrocław, Lidzbark Warmiński and Gniew. Agricultural topics dominated – from fertilization in eco-schemes, through hybrid protection and biologicalization, to carbon farming.
“Farmer” regional conferences organized under the slogan Direction Innovation were held this year in the shadow of farmers’ protests across Poland, but we still recorded good attendance. Farmers are aware that without knowledge and current innovations they cannot develop, they must also respond to the market situation and comply with relevant laws and regulations. Although this sometimes causes a lot of frustration, there is no choice – this is the reality in which a new season must be started. Meetings such as the “Farmera” regional conferences allow you to look at agricultural problems from a different perspective. This year, we touched on several important thematic areas, while not forgetting how the image of Polish agriculture is being reshaped.
Biologization continues to progress
Conferences traditionally consisted of several sessions. In the first one, devoted to hybrid protection, participants had the opportunity to listen to a lecture entitled: “Maximization of cereal and rapeseed yield and hybrid protection” depending on the location, performed by Dr. Hab. Marty Damszel from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn or prof. Marek Korbas from the Institute of Plant Protection National Research Institute in Poznań.
Also in this part, representatives of Syngenta Polska, Małgorzata Srebro or Wojciech Głosny, gave a lecture entitled: “Innovative solutions supporting the maximization of corn yields.” As the speakers informed, a new Cropwise Seed Selector website was launched in 2023, which allows you to receive seed recommendations tailored to your site. They emphasized that farmers have to face various types of problems, starting from drought in the flowering phase, to soil variability, and ending with rising production costs. However, the selection of the right variety is the factor that determines the final yield.
Paweł Talbierz from Corteva Agriscience Poland during his speech entitled “Royal quality in the protection of cereals against diseases, or why is it worth investing in new solutions?” he calculated that the costs of growing 1 ha of wheat are PLN 4,500, and the share of fungicide protection in their structure is 7%. He also discussed the effects of the Queen fungicide containing, among others, active substance Inatreq active.
The next session of our conferences was devoted to biology, which has recently become increasingly important. This is visible, for example, in the number of biopreparations offered on the market, which – as emphasized by one of the speakers, Dr. Hab. engineer Justyna Starzyk prof. UPP from the University of Life Sciences in Poznań – increases from month to month. For example, from November 2023 to February 2024, the number of funds published on the IUNG Puławy website increased by 60 items.
In this part, Syngenta representatives Adam Szepiela and Dr. hab. Katarzyna Rębarz alternately gave a lecture entitled “Crop optimization using modern technologies, biology and plant protection products.” Specifically, they focused on how data from Interra Scan, a soil scanner, is collected and analyzed, which is then used to create advanced abundance and fertilization maps. These are not the only innovative solutions implemented by Syngenta, which is increasingly delving into the field of agricultural biologization, providing biological products that support and stimulate plant regeneration.
Dr. Eng also spoke on biological issues. Robert Chrzanowski from Agrosimex. His presentation titled “Discover the power of a new biofungicide in agricultural crops!” focused on the biofungicide Polygreen Fungicide WP containing Pythium oligandrum (a non-pathogenic fungus-like organism).
Fertilization tailored to eco-schemes
The next parts concerned fertilization. Here with a substantive lecture entitled: “Fertilization tailored to eco-schemes” was presented by Dr. Hab. Witold Szczepaniak, prof. UPP. His lecture had a very practical tone and met the requirements currently applicable to farmers. In Gniew, the same topic was discussed by Dr. Hab. Jarosław Potarzycki, prof. UPP.
The topic of fertilizers was further supplemented by Zbigniew Potrzuski from Phoenix Poland, who answered the question in his lecture: “How to independently and cheaply cover urea with a urease inhibitor on a farm.” As an example, the speaker gave the stabilized nitrogen fertilizer moNolith46, which – according to his calculations – can be a substitute for ammonium nitrate.
In some locations, Tomasz Fudała from GoudenKorrel also gave a lecture entitled “Innovative solutions in agriculture – mineral fertilizers based on polyhalite”, during which he explained that polyhalite is a natural mineral found in underground deposits, rich in essential nutrients, including potassium, sulfur, magnesium and calcium.
In turn, “The role of specialized fertilizers and biostimulants in the context of climate change and the Green Deal” is the topic of the presentation by Bartosz Machalski from Natural Crop, who at the beginning provided data regarding, among others, that 1 percent 240 thousand of organic matter is retained per hectare of land. l of water. He also presented the product Solactiv Evo, which is to be the answer, among others, to increasingly frequent extreme phenomena, i.e. droughts.
Market forecasts, or secret knowledge
Later in the conference, we moved from agrotechnical topics to market topics. He discussed grain balances in Poland and around the world in detail in the lecture titled: “Plant production management in the face of market requirements” Mirosław Marciniak from InfoGrain.
This session was also supplemented with topics devoted to agriculture 4.0. To the question “What do you expect from an innovative transmission in an agricultural tractor?” The representatives of Class Polska answered: Krzysztof Gomolla and Emil Kaźmierczak, who focused on the Claas Cmatic continuously variable transmission, which, as they said, was protected for 5 years or 5,000 hours.
Regenerative agriculture is on the agenda
The meeting ended with a session devoted to the issues of regenerative agriculture. In the context of the Common Agricultural Policy, in a lecture entitled “Cultivation for eco-schemes in regenerative agriculture”, Dr. Hab. engineer Tomasz Piskier from the Koszalin University of Technology.
Finally, the “Coal program – terms and conditions” was discussed by Marcin Szczek or Łukasz Żurawiecki from Agreena. The speakers noted that the trading platform created in 2017 currently operates in 17 countries, including Poland, and deals with carbon farming as well as trading in carbon certificates.
