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Beetle with asweet tooth

Australia: Contribu-

tion of Confidor Guard

to greyback cane grubmanagement.

The latest inplant breeding

Increasing yields,

securing the food

supply: biotechnol-ogy in the field.

A bitterbean thats inhot demand

Cocoa: a sensitive

crop with valuableexport potential.

Fresh food, deliveredto your plate

The Bayer CropScience Magazine for modern Agriculture 1 | 11


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2 COURIER 1 | 11

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

Beetle with a sweet tooth

Australia is the worlds eighth-largest producer of

sugar cane, and the third largest exporter of cane

sugar. However, the countrys 4,000 sugar canefarmers have a troublesome insect pest to deal

with: the greyback cane grub. Fortunately, Bayer

CropSciences Confidor Guard presents an efficient

solution to the problem.

Page 10

Seite 12BIOSCIENCE

The latest in plant

breeding

Small seed, great need: major crops like

wheat and rice start life in the field as tiny,

inconspicuous seeds which nevertheless

have to grow to meet high expectations.

Bayer CropSciences researchers are working

to give the crops new power.

PANORAMA

A bitter bean thatsin hot demand

The more delicate the fruit, the more susceptible

the plants are to pests and diseases. Cocoa trees

are very choosy when it comes to their growing

environment: only the warmest and wettest tropi-

cal conditions will do such as those found in the

Ivory Coast, Brazil and Indonesia.

Page 24

CONTENT | IMPRINT

Page 14

Published by:Bayer CropScience AG, Monheim

am Rhein, Germany / Editor: Bernhard Grupp /

With contributions from: Widera Kommunikation,

K. Doughty, Wissen + Konzepte / Design and Layout:

Xpertise, Langenfeld / Lithography: LSD GmbH &Co. KG, Dsseldorf / Printed by: Kunst- und Werbe-

druck, Bad Oeynhausen / Reproduction of contents

is permissible providing Bayer is acknowledged

and advised by specimen copy / Editors address:

Bayer CropScience AG, Corporate Communi-

cations, Alfred-Nobel-Str. 50, 40789 Monheim

mance of the company and the estimates given

here. These factors include those discussed in

Bayers public reports which are available on the

Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company

assumes no liability whatsoever to update theseforward-looking statements or to conform them

to future events or developments.

COURIERonline-news

www.agrocourier.com

am Rhein, Germany, FAX: 0049-2173-383454 /

Website: www.bayercropscience.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This publication may contain forward-lookingstatements based on current assumptions and

forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup

management. Various known and unknown risks,

uncertainties and other factors could lead to

material differences between the actual future

results, financial situation, development or perfor-

IMPRINT


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1 | 11 COURIER 03CONTENT | NEWS IN BRIEF

NUTRITION

Vitamins, delivered to your plate 04

Fruit and vegetables for the convenience

food market.

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

Beetle with a sweet tooth 10Effective greyback cane grub

management with Confidor Guard.

BIOSCIENCE

The latest in plant breeding 14

Increasing yields, securing the food supply:

biotechnology in the field.

INTERVIEW

Using genetic networks and

interdisciplinary approaches 18

An interview with Dr. Johan Botterman,

Head of BioScience Product Research at

Bayer CropScience

TECHNOLOGY

Protecting corn seedlings

against competition 20

The new corn herbicide Adengo is

revolutionizing early weed control.

PANORAMA

A bitter bean thats in hot demand 24Cocoa a valuable export crop.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

New woods from the glasshouse 28

Over the past five years, Bayer CropScience

has been helping its customers in the fore-

stry sector to plant trees on an industrial

scale and then to keep them healthy.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Strengthening the productportfolio for cereals 31

Bayer CropScience is investing significant

resources into research and development in

order to develop new varieties and increase

the productivity of wheat cultivation.

Better fungicide

rotation in Brazil

Anew Bayer CropScience product finally allows for the urgentlyneeded fungicide rotation for Brazilian soybean growers: For the

next season, Fox will hit the shelves, providing unprecedented

control of Asian soybean rust and other soybean diseases such as

target spot and anthracnose. Based on the active ingredient prothi-

oconazole, Fox is highly effective on fungi populations showing

low sensitivity to other products and makes plants more vigorous

and resistant to diseases as well as short periods of drought.During the past season, Bayer CropScience colleagues in Brazil

tested the product on more than 700 field plots. In our tests, we

registered an average of seven percent higher yield compared to

other standards in the market, said Global Crop Manager Mauro

Alberton. Thats because of the increased content of chlorophyll

and other plant components in the treated plants.

In the tests, Fox has proven its effectiveness on populations show-

ing lower sensitivities toward classical azole-based fungicides. Its

innovative twists are the different binding characteristics: Com-

pared to the commonly used azoles, the triazolinthione compound

prothioconazole has a different way of attaching itself to the

enzyme it intends to block in the fungus. t

As part of her search

for effective tools to

control Asian soybean

rust, the Brazilian biolo-

gist Cleonilda Santos

analyses rust isolates on

infected leaves. With the

new fungicide Fox, Bayer

CropSciences researchers

have succeeded in devel-

oping a novel, effectiveproduct for controlling

this disease.


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NUTRIT ION

Rising prosperity isnt just pushing the demand for meat. High-quality fruit and vegetables

are also increasingly in demand around the world. But the amount of time consumers are

willing to spend preparing them is decreasing. Consumption of ready-made salads and

fruit snacks is on the rise - and convenience food is proving to be a stable market sector,

even in times of economic crisis. This presents farmers and plantation companies with an

opportunity ready for the taking as long as they possess a clear understanding of the

requirements and needs of customers.

Bananas from the snack dis-penser, peeled oranges in see-throughboxes, juicy melon cubes in a cup, orsalad la chef in plastic trays: vitamins

4 COURIER 1 | 11

Fruit and vegetables for the convenience food market

Vitamins,deliveredto your plate

to go, instead of carbohydrates fast

food is certainly in. Convenience food

is an extremely fast-growing market.

And its not just single people who areincreasingly interested in ready-to-use

products examples of which include

prepared salad in bags, chopped carrot

sticks for a healthy snack, fruit salad with

melon, or sandwiches ready for eating in

the office. This healthy fast food has fans

from all age groups and social groupings.

For food and drink consumption patterns

are becoming less and less likely to followclearly-defined paths: they are becom-

ing more flexible and individual due to

the broad variety of attitudes and life-

styles. But one underlying trend is clear:

most people are interested in living, and


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1 | 11 COURIER 05NUTRIT ION

eating, more healthily. This means that

supermarkets must offer fresh fruit and

vegetables of consistently high quality

throughout the year. At the same time,

people dont want to spend much time

preparing their food.

Contrary to all expectations, the conven-

ience food sector has proved itself largely

immune to the latest crisis in the world

economy, says Hans Renia, a Produce

Chain specialist who covers the Neth-

erlands and Germany for Nunhems, the

vegetable seed business of Bayer Crop-

Science. In the United States, the market

for so-called fresh-cut products even

grew by five per cent in 2009, despite

the economic downturn. Convenience

food may be more expensive than buy-

ing the raw ingredients for a meal indi-

vidually, but its still cheaper than eating

in a restaurant. And the recent reces-

sion has led many people to reduce the

number of occasions on which they eat

out, making them stay at home instead

to enjoy a meal with family and friends.

The convenience food sector contrib-

utes the major elements of these meals,

says Renia. Although restaurants tend to

rely increasingly on fresh produce, the

real growth market nowadays is in the

retail sector. Moreover, private consum-

ers are willing to pay a higher premiumfor ready-made ingredients. The range

of products is growing: Many older and

more established brands but also many

new companies are looking to achieve

competitive advantage and higher profit

Sandwiches with fresh, crisp salad leaves are often the

result of speedy mass production.

margins through innovation, says Renia.

The number of consumers eating con-

venience food at least once a week con-

tinues to climb rapidly. According to a

study by Rabobank, the fresh produce

industry in the EU is expected to achieve

an annual growth rate of at least four

percent over the coming years. The Asian

market for convenience foods is growing

at an even greater speed: the annual rate

of increase exceeds ten percent in many

Asian countries. The wealthy middle

class is expanding rapidly. Not only do

these people have little time, they are also

Popular Vitamins

Just over one and a half billion tons of fruit and vegetables were produced

worldwide in 2010. According to the German agricultural market information

company (AMI), approximately 820 million tons of vegetables and 700 million

tons of fruit were produced worldwide that year. Apples, grapes, oranges, mel-

ons and bananas are the worlds most important fruit species: taken together,

they account for about 65 percent of world production. There is a more diverse

range of species among vegetables, and the top five (tomato, onion, cabbage,

cucumber and eggplant) represent only about 40 percent of production. The EUis the worlds number one importing region for fresh fruit. For fresh vegetables,

this only applies if the trade between EU countries is also taken into account;

otherwise, the U.S. is in the lead.

very open to new ideas good precon-

ditions for convenience products, says

Renia. And the emerging countries of

Eastern Europe are also discovering the

advantages of fresh finished products.

However, it is very difficult to obtain

reliable statistics on market size: incon-

sistent use of definitions, the dynamics of

growth, and varying regional structures

make this almost impossible. In the EU

for example, ready-to-eat salads repre-

sent half of the fresh produce market; in a

more mature market such as the U.S., the

corresponding figure is only seven per-


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cent. The US market is also much more

strongly focused: 82 percent of sales for

pre-packed salads is shared by five fresh

products manufacturers. In Europe and

Asia, market share is more fine-grained:

There are many more participants in

the market, and thus a predominance of

smaller players, says Renia.

Listening carefullyto the customer

A major center of innovation for con-

venience foods is the West coast of the

United States. Many new product ideasare being generated in California that

then spread to the rest of the coun-

try. In Europe, the United Kingdom is

leading the way in fresh-cut products

from the refrigerated counter. Here, pre-

Keeping the cooling and storage chain

short is essential if fruit and vegetables

are to reach the table fresh.

Quality control at Nunhems: Jan Bergs

checks the development of melon seed-

lings under experimental conditions. The

aim is to breed varieties that fulfill the

requirements of the market.

Washing and processing must not

affect the quality of the fruit.

packaged sandwiches and salads to go

are very much in fashion. And in the

area of fresh-fruit salads, pre-cut por-

tions are becoming ever more popular.

In many countries, you can find them

everywhere these days, says Thomas

Gruenewald, Head of Product Area for

fresh and frozen articles at Lekkerland,

a European full-service specialist com-

pany for all strategic convenience food

distribution channels. For example, Lek-

kerland supplies fresh sandwiches and

ready-mixed leafy salads to gas station

shops, grocery stores, bakeries, canteens

and convenience stores.Gruenewald lists some of the important

demands made of his convenience retail

partners, Standardized procedures are

very important for maintaining a con-

sistently high level of product quality.

For us, it is critical not only that our part-

ners work professionally: they also need

to support this fact through certification.

Sourcing fresh salads or sliced tomatoes

is particularly highly demanding in terms

of manufacturing and logistics. Vegeta-

bles must be easily transported and capa-

ble of storage. And they actually con-

tinue to live on after harvest: valuable

constituents are broken down and loss of

quality can occur through fungal growth.

For the trade and logistics companies,

this means a race against time. For Lek-

kerlands convenience food experts, the

refrigeration chain is a key element: itmust function seamlessly, starting with

the harvest, via processing, and through

to sale in gas stations, supermarkets or

snack bars. Proper cooling is achieved

at between two and seven degrees Cel-

sius. At storage temperatures higher than

seven degrees Celsius, there is a much

greater possibility that a lot of fresh pro-

duce starts to deteriorate. The industry

calculates, for example, that each hour

of interruption reduces the shelf life of

prepared salads by about a day.Innovation drivers in the area of conven-

ience foods can be found in nearly all

of the participating branches: from seed

producers to processing plants and from

machinery manufacturers to packaging


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1 | 11 COURIER 07NUTRIT ION

designers. But its fruit and vegetable

breeding in particular thats occupying

a central role in satisfying the growing

demand for convenience food: For us,

innovation starts with the seed. In that

regard, we work effectively with all rep-

resentatives involved in the convenience

market, including food processors, cater-

ing companies and retailers, says Daniel

Kretzschmar, Nunhems Produce Chain

Manager for Europe, Middle East and

Africa. The breeders therefore always lis-

ten closely to the consumer: sweet cherry

tomatoes should disappear in a single

mouthful, and heart-shaped tomatoes are

considered a popular party gimmick. New

varieties tend to be the result of a ten-

year process of crossing and selection.

Special varietiesrequired

Large food chain players usually have

specific requirements of raw commodities

for convenience foods. And these often

differ from the requirements consumers

have for fresh fruit. Take melons and

watermelons for example: processors tend

to prefer larger fruits for making fruit sal-

ads than most consumers do, because the

recovery rate is much higher with larger

fruits. A German food retailer stipulates

strict cultivation conditions to suppli-

ers of its salad vegetables, peppers and

grapes. The basis for this is the standard

Global GAP (Good Agricultural Practice).

But on top of this, this retailer tolerates

only a certain percent of the legally-per-

mitted maximum residue limits of crop

protection products, and controls this

through systematic, intensive monitor-

ing that involves frequent quality checks,

starting in the field and continuing right

into the retail trade. And this retailer only

accepts from its suppliers specific varie-

ties of lettuce that are capable of good

processing. After cutting, the lettuces are

immediately washed in ice water, so that

the cut surfaces quickly close over and

the products are made more durable.

We strive to obtain a good insight into

the complex production process. That

helps us to learn a lot about individual

processing procedures and current con-

sumer trends. This, in turn, helps us todevelop varieties that start new trends in

the industry, says Kretzschmar, describ-

ing the Nunhems approach. For example,

it is essential that processing plants can

obtain a steady supply of fresh, raw prod-

ucts throughout the year. This is why a

processor might use varieties from differ-

ent growing regions: the consumer may

not notice the difference. Depending on

the season, fresh-product companies

based in the Benelux countries might

process Nunhems melon varieties that

have been grown in Spain, Senegal, Bra-

zil or Central America. Having a uniform

product is particularly important when

fruit and vegetables are processed auto-

matically: for example, the machines that

cut watermelons and honeydew melons

into bite-sized cubes for pre-packaged

fruit salads only work well for a particu-

lar size and shape of fruit. This requires

special varieties that can be grown to the

same quality standard in different coun-

tries, explains Kretzschmar.

Optimizing industrialprocessing

Besides the current trend towards ready-

portioned fruit salads, theres a con-

venience food classic that is still sell-

ing extremely well: the sandwich. And

it doesnt matter whether the filling is

chicken breast, ham or salami tomatoes,

cucumber and lettuce leaves must alwaysbe added. But sandwiches are a major

challenge for the food processing indus-

try, points out Kretzschmar, because

simply everything has to be right. The

ingredients have to be easy to handle and

available all year round. They must arrive

in a ripe and easily-processed condition,

and must match the other ingredients in

the sandwich. They should not make the

bread go soggy; they must look fresh

and have a pleasant, sweet taste - and of

course, they must be inexpensive.

This is why researchers and breeders at

Nunhems have developed a range of vari-

eties specifically for the convenience food

Daniel Kretzschmar, Nunhems Produce Chain Manager for

Europe, Middle East and Africa at the Fruit Logistica in Berlin,

the worlds largest trade fair for the international fruit trade.

The Produce Chain specialist Hans Renia covers

the Netherlands and Germany for Nunhems, the

vegetable seeds business of Bayer CropScience.


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8 COURIER 1 | 11 NUTRIT ION

industry. The Intense tomato simplifies

tomato processing, especially for hotels,

restaurants and catering companies. And

Veronica Castaneda Muoz, a nutrition

scientist from Mexico, is enthusiastic

about her encounter with Intense: One

bite was enough to convince me. There

was no squirting, and it tasted wonder-

ful. The special feature of the tomato is

its dense structure. The juice is retained

even under pressure, so that the fruits can

be cut into very thin slices. This makes it

ideal for sandwiches, which would other-

wise be completely soggy after only a few

hours, says the Mexican lady, who has

worked for two years now at her fathersmarket garden in Camalu, and manages

some 83 hectares of tomato plantations.

The fact that the tomato doesnt lose any

juice is a big benefit for food safety, as

bacteria can develop rapidly in liquids

says Kretzschmar.

The manufacturers of processing

machines also play an important part

in the value chain, because the grow-

ing convenience food market can only

be satisfied through optimal industrial

processing, explains Stephan Zillgith,

Managing Director of Kronen Nahrungs-

mitteltechnik (Food Technology) GmbH,

a machine producer that has specialized

in processing equipment and is present in

all of the major markets. Their machines

chop, cut or slice up to 2,000 kilogramsof fresh produce an hour: cabbage heads

are chopped into strips for salads; car-

rots are peeled and cut automatically into

thumb-length pieces. And crisp apples

are turned into bite-sized morsels.

Zillgiths most important customers

include companies in the U.S., Brit-

ain and the rest of the EU. But he also

observes growth in convenience food

in the Middle East, because demand for

processing machines is increasing in the

region. You see more and more finished

products in airports, hotels and tour-

ist centers. And even in countries with

relatively low wage levels, such as Thai-

land, producers of convenience foods

are keen on technology using it to cut

the very popular pineapple into bite-

size pieces. Machines can be sterilized,

whereas people can introduce contami-

nating germs, thus reducing the shelf-life

considerably, explains Zillgith. He has

also supplied machines to Turkey for de-

stoning apricots, and even the traditional

strawberries served at Wimbledon havetheir stalks removed by Kronen machines

before being filled with vanilla sauce.

Innovative conveniencefood marketing

Large retail chains such as Del Monte are

also constantly looking for innovative

ways of introducing new convenience

products in the market. For example,

the company has worked with its part-

ners to develop a concept for the sale of

individual bananas from snack (vending)

machines: they also offer grapes, pine-

apple chunks, apple slices, baby carrots,

celery sticks and grape tomatoes too. We

are responding to the demand for healthy

food in new situations by offering fresh

products in places such as schools, uni-

versities and theaters, explains Den-

nis Christou, Marketing Vice-President,

speaking during the Fresh Connex 2011

exhibition in Berlin. Christou who is

always on the lookout for new distri-

bution channels also sees a growing

demand and great growth potential for

convenience foods in other major mar-

kets in Europe and the Middle East.

The nutrition

expert Veronica

Castaneda Munoz

on her farm,

Berry Veg de

Baja in Mexico,

where she culti-

vates the Intense

tomato.

Dr. Birgitt Walz-Tylla, Head of Food

Chain Management

at Bayer CropSci-

ence, with Georg

Funken, the owner

of a raw food pro-

cessing factory.


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1 | 11 COURIER 09NUTRIT ION 1 | 11 COURIER 09

The successful introduction of new con-

venience products requires not only novel

ideas for products, but also accurate

knowledge of the requirements and needs

of all market participants. Bayer CropSci-

ences experts therefore try to establish

close links with, and between, growers,

consultants, processors, food wholesal-

ers, importers, exporters, retailers and

catering specialists, in order to achieve

a better understanding of the demands

of consumers and the industry. Con-

sumers around the world have become

more demanding in terms of the qual-

ity of fruits and vegetables. They want

to know where, and how, their food was

grown, explains Dr. Birgitt Walz-Tylla,

Head of Bayer CropSciences Food Chain

Partnership team. This program benefits

consumers as much as it does transport-ers, distributors, food distributors and

farmers around the world: We launched

the Food Chain Partnership concept in

order to provide benefits for each link in

the food chain, says Walz-Tylla. In addi-

tion, Bayer CropScience also supports

fruit and vegetable growers to market

their products at the international level.

Traceability, sustainabilityand food safety

But its also important that farmers adapt

their farming practices and production

methods to meet the needs of the con-

venience food industry, emphasizes the

Nunhems expert Renia. This particularly

applies to issues such as traceability, sus-

tainability and food safety: And its pay-

ing off for farmers and plantation own-

ers, particularly in the convenience food

area, because pre-prepared fresh products

have a much higher value than unpro-

cessed foods, frozen or canned foods.

Moreover, profit margins are consider-

ably higher in the fresh products sector.

The growing convenience segment there-

fore presents a huge opportunity for fruit

and vegetable growers around the world:

For companies that produce ready-made

fresh products, reliable partners those

who can supply over the long term are

essential, says Renia. t

Michael Kmpf

Research into convenience foodsThe Intense tomato, a product of Nunhems - Bayer CropSciences vegetable

seed business - was specifically designed for the convenience food market. It

doesnt just leave the processing stage looking exceptionally good in pre-packed

salads: it also maintains its good-looking appearance over a prolonged period,

doesnt oxidize or fade, and doesnt discolor any of the other items in the salad.

But the tomato is only one of many examples of Bayer CropSciences innovative

power. Multileaf is a type of lettuce that splits into many leaves of comparable

size after a single cut. The lettuce offers further significant benefits through its

durability and volume, because it stays fresh for a long time, both in the refrig-

erator, and on the plate. Nunhems breeders can also offer positive developments

in connection with melons: for example, theyve been able to breed watermelons

without seeds, and Magenta cantaloupe melons with particularly sweet, orange

flesh. New vegetable varieties are continually being developed. We are breeding

new varieties on a continuous basis, because a variety is only of interest to the

market for an average of four years, says Ko Remijnse, Managing Director of

Marketing and Sales at Nunhems.

The Intense tomato doesnt lose its juice, and tastes just as juicy after

processing as a fresh tomato.


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0 COURIER 1 | 11 AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

Sugarcane crops in Queensland, Australia,

where 4,000 farmers work an area of

around 450,000 hectares to produce about

30 million tonnes of raw sugar.


11/32

1 | 11 COURIER 11AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

The inhabitants of the Aus-

tralian north-east coast are probably

in a hurry to forget last summer. First,

persistent very heavy rainfall put huge

tracts of land under water. And then in

February, cyclone Yasi, a weather event

as big as Hurricane Katrina, swept over

the north-east coast, with wind speeds

of nearly 300 kilometers an hour.

These weather systems left serious

effects on the farms along the coastal

strip and also in the inland northern

cropping regions. Many cotton farms

were flooded, and much of the tropi-

cal banana producing area in the north

of the state of Queensland suffered very

severe damage from the extreme winds.

Many of the 4,000 Australian sugar

cane growers also suffered. Almost the

whole Australian sugar cane cultivation

area of 450,000 hectares lies along the

very stretches of the eastern and north-

eastern coast that received the worst

battering. Almost all of the sugar caneproduction in Australia comes from the

coastal strip in Queensland between the

southern border near the Gold Coast

and far North Queensland, a distance of

several thousand kilometres. The vast

fields of metershigh sugar cane and the

many small towns with sugar mills are

an iconic image of Queenslands agri-

culture. The Australians harvest about

30 million tons of sugar cane each year

producing about five million tonnes

of raw sugar, eighty percent of which is

exported, mainly to East Asia.

Last season, it will probably have been

much less. Estimates by a representative

canegrower organisation of the com-

bined damage from the unusually wetweather prior to the arrival of Yasi and

the direct effects of Yasi itself indicate

that the sugar cane farmers may have

lost 500 million Australian dollars (350

million) or more, which corresponds to

about a quarter of the industrys normal

annual turnover: a huge loss.

To make matters worse, Australian sugar

cane farmers arent just confronted with

the vagaries of the weather: like virtu-

ally all crops, sugarcane has its own list

of pests that have to be dealt with. Oneof the most feared in Australia is the

cane beetle. Farmers are confronted with

about 20 different species of this pest.

A particularly damaging one is the grey-

back cane grub. Graham Blackburn is a

farmer who knows the effect of this spe-

cies only too well. In the last ten years

we have been getting very poor sugar

content in the cane, he says and we

are paid on sugar content. Eventually,

we could trace this back to the greyback

grub. But this took some time. At first,

we had only noticed that the cane was

always sort of unwell, a little bit under

stress, but we did not know what the

problem was until we had a look at the

roots of the plants. It turned out that,between February and April, the stool

(the root system under the clumps of

cane) is being attacked so heavily that

the plants have hardly any roots left to

feed with. It turned out that this was a

result of greyback grub.

Its mainly the larvae that are the prob-

lem, explains Pat English, who works

as a Technical Advisor for Bayer Crop-

Science in Queensland, and has his

office in the small town of Mackay

right in the heart of sugar cane countryand not far away from the place where

Blackburn runs his 800 ha cane and cat-

tle farm. English and his colleagues are

all too familiar with the farmers prob-

lems. The adult beetles really dont do

Sugar cane cultivation in Australia

Beetle with asweet toothAustralia is the worlds eighth-largest producer of sugar

cane, and the third largest exporter of cane sugar. However,

the countrys 4,000 sugar cane farmers have a troublesome

insect pest to deal with. Fortunately, Bayer CropSciences

Confidor Guard offers an efficient solution to the problem.

Aerial view of greyback grub damage

near Haughton River in northeast

Australia.


12/32

trolled when toads became predators ofthe beetles.. The project was a failure:

Unfortunately, Australia now has a toad

problem on top of its beetle problem. The

supposed solution turned into a prolific

and ecologically disruptive intruder.

Later, the sugar cane farmers began to

have success with organochlorine and

organophosphorus chemicals. Whilst

these were effective, they were also

problematic: for example the organo-

chlorines had serious environmental

consequences, and chlorpyrifos, an

organophosphate, is biodegraded very

rapidly in many Australian soils thus

rendering it ineffective very quickly.

These classes of substances have since

been largely replaced by active sub-

stances with better risk profiles.

Confidor Guard became available

under emergency permit conditions

when control of greyback grub became

a catastrophic failure in one of the major

growing regions, the Burdekin, in 2001.

At the time, we were actually in the

process of developing a special Confi-

dor formulation for use in sugar cane,

recalls Pat English, but because the

active substance in Confidor Guard had

a completely new mode-of-action for

controlling beetles, we soon found out

that we had some better options with a

conventional formulation.

This product had extremely good resid-

ual efficacy which meant we then had

options to apply into ratoons as well as

in the plant crop, which had not been

possible before with any product. Wedeveloped new application techniques

and equipment which allowed place-

ment below the soil surface in both cir-

cumstances. The ability to apply treat-

ments in ratoons has been a revolution

Greyback grub,

3rd instar head

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE2COURIER 1| 11

Severe greyback

grub damage

any crop damage; they feed on mainlytree leaves for about 2-3 days only when

they are about to mate. When they lay

their eggs it is most often in sugar cane

crops, and when those eggs hatch, the

larvae feed on the sugar cane roots.

This is where the real damage occurs.

he explains. Sometimes the root system

is damaged so badly that the plant loses

its hold in the soil and falls over.

Risk of cane

grub damageFor farmers, this means not only crop

losses, but also a lot of extra work and

expense to restore the fields to pro-

duction. The fallen plants have to be

removed and replaced with new plant-

ings. This is especially costly because

sugar cane is grown using ratoon agron-

omy, in which farmers do not normally

replant every year, but instead prac-

tice so-called ratooning, which simply

involves letting the stubble that remains

after harvest stand in the field. The stalks

then reshoot from the underground root

system (the stool) again the next sea-

son. It is possible to continue in this

way for several years, until the plants

have become exhausted and need to be

replaced with new plants. However, an

intact root stock is an important prereq-

uisite for ratooning. This is why cane

beetle larvae attacking the roots is such

a great problem to the farmers.

And have been for decades. As early

as the 1930s, there was an attempt atintroducing biological control of the

cane beetle by introducing the cane

toad originally from South America

to Australia. The assumption was that

the cane beetle problem would be con-

in canegrub management, said English.Whats also important about the prod-

uct is that it enters the roots, so it can act

systemically, explains Pat English. As

soon as the larvae begin to chew on the

roots, they start swallowing the active

substance. Confidor Guard is especially

effective when taken up into the insect

stomach, he points out.

And the Bayer sugar cane team members

stress another important aspect: Confi-

dor Guard fits perfectly into Integrated

Pest Management (IPM) programs. The

active substance is effective at very low

doses, and it can also be used very selec-

tively: if applied correctly, its systemic

action means that it will have the lowest

possible effect on non-target organisms.

Fitting into IPMprograms

For the cane beetle, however, Confidor

Guard is bad news. As soon as the lar-

vae come into contact with the prod-

uct, their behavior changes noticeably.

They stop eating and begin to lose body

mass, says English. When this effect

remains in place for several weeks, it

usually results in the grubs starving to

death.

We have also gained much improved

knowledge of beetle behaviour says

English. With greyback grubs, we now

know how to attract egg laying adults to

some cane fields in preference to others.

The mechanism is related to the height

and vigour of each field, but in essence,we can manipulate the chances of indi-

vidual fields being infested. Once we do

that, we can use some fields as lethal

trap crops by treating them with Con-

fidor Guard. Farmers can manipulate


13/32

1 | 11 COURIER 13AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE

Applying Confidor

Guard to ratoon

cane

height and vigour of individual fieldsby varying harvest timing, nutrition

and irrigation. Its actually an elegant

implementation of IPM, says English.

With other grub species, other tech-

niques are used. Grubs with 2-year life-

cycles cause damage in spring, and can

be effectively treated immediately when

the first signs of damage are evident,

because the cane is rarely so large at

that time that application is not pos-

sible. However, those species which

have an annual lifecycle tend to cause

damage in autumn, which means that

often cane is too large for machinery

to be operating in those fields. In those

circumstances, prophylactic treatments

need to be applied in spring well before

infestation.

No threat to the World Natural Heritage Site

The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest coral reef on earth, and a unique ecosys-

tem. It has been a World Natural Heritage site since 1981. For many years

now, we have been carefully making sure that none of the products weve been

developing for use in sugar cane fields represents any threat to ecosystems

in river estuaries and the sea, explains Pat English, Technical Advisor for

Bayer CropScience in Australia. In the case of Confidor Guard, the company

developed subsurface application techniques for just this purpose: to prevent

the active substance from being washed off from fields. Investigations have

shown that the product remains in the soil for a moderate time, at depths

down to about 30 centimeters or less exactly the region in which beetle

larvae attack the sugar cane roots. In the end, all the material in soil is biode-

graded. It was also possible to demonstrate, according to English, that the

very small amount of active substance that was present in water was quickly

broken down there.This is very important for farmers. The State of Queensland initiated its Reef

Water Quality Protection Plan as recently as 2009. Reducing the level of

contamination of coastal waters with chemicals from agriculture is one of its

express aims.

This is exactly the case on GrahamBlackburns farm. In autumn, by

March and April the stalks are already

so high again that we can no longer go

over the fields with a tractor in order

to treat, therefore, we do a prophylactic

treatment each September by injecting

directly into the stool, says Blackburn

who has been using Confidor Guard for

four years now.

It does a

fantastic job.Another important factor in the accept-

ance of Confidor Guard is that if it is

used properly, it presents negligible

threat to the Great Barrier Reef Marine

Park, which lies offshore, running along

the coast (see box). We conducted local

fate studies with this product and the

application methods seem to be bio-

logically effective while limiting offsite

movements.

Within only a few years of its introduc-

tion in Australia, Confidor Guard has

become market leader in sugar cane

insecticides. Among many others, Gra-

ham Blackburn seems to be quite happy

with its effectiveness. It does a fantas-

tic job. It keeps the cane green where it

turned yellow in the years before. And

for the first time in more than 20 years

Blackburn has got a better sugar content

in his cane than the average of the col-

leagues in his mill area. This return on

investment makes the use of the product

very economical, as Blackburn puts it.

Knowing such results, Pat English seeseven more potential for the product.

There are still areas of this countrys

sugar cane industry that are not yet prac-

ticing the treatment, but where treatment

would certainly bring financial benefits

for farmers, explains English. He and his

colleagues still have a lot to do. They help

farmers wherever they can. But theres

one problem they have no solution for:

theyll never be able to prevent extreme

weather events. t Karl Hbner

Cairns

Queensland

Queensland

GreatBarrierReef

Australia

New South Wales

Mossman

InnisfallMourilyan

LucindaIngham

Townsville

Bulk Sugar Terminal Ports

Sugar Cane Areas

Sugar Mills

Sugar Refineries

Proserpine

Mackay

Rockhampton

Bundaberg

Maryborough

Gympie

Brisbane

Ballina

Grafton


14/32

4 COURIER 1 | 11 BIOSCIENCE

Small seed, great need: major crops such as wheat and rice start life in the field as tiny,

inconspicuous seeds which nevertheless have high expectations to meet. For the worlds

population is growing, and the demand for food with it. In future, these crops must pro-

duce higher yields than ever before on less available farmland if there is to be any guaran-

tee of food security. Using biotechnological methods, Bayer CropSciences researchers are

working in their laboratories around the globe to give the crops new power so they can

do whats needed in the field.

The latest in plant bree

Increasing yields, securing the food supply


15/32

1 | 11 COURIER 15BIOSCIENCE

The world will need more food.

Increasing prosperity in emerging econ-

omies such as China, Russia, Brazil and

India is bringing major changes to eat-

ing habits. The demand for high-quality

food such as meat and dairy products

is growing. Overall, the requirement for

meat and thus for animal feed will

increase by 25 percent over the next 15

years, according to the FAO (Food and

Agriculture Organization).

Indeed, the FAO data indicates that global

food production will have to almost

double by 2050. But while the number

of people increases by around 80 millionevery year, the amount of arable land

per person available for growing food

continues to shrink in proportion. The

global potential for creating new agri-

cultural land is seriously limited, and the

available acreage is even declining in

many countries due to water scarcity,

soil erosion and desertification, warns

Prof. Chiara Tonelli, Professor of Genet-

ics at the University of Milan in Italy.

If food production is to keep up with

demand, then the productivity of crops

must increase significantly as many

experts will confirm.

Scientists are therefore working inten-

sively to develop plants that produce

higher yields. Drought tolerance and

fertilizer uptake are also important tar-

gets in the development of new vari-

eties, because global climate change

might exacerbate the current supply

challenges. In fact, classical methods of

cross-breeding are unlikely to meet the

high demands imposed on the crops of

the future. But rapid progress in plantbiotechnology in recent years has made

new tools available to breeders and

researchers: Biotechnological meth-

ods dont just accelerate plant breed-

ing considerably, they also complement

the many years of traditional breeding

experience, says Dr. Johan Botterman,

Head of Product Research in BioSci-

ence at Bayer CropScience. Using the

new breeding techniques, plants can

be equipped with the desired properties

more quickly.This is thanks mainly to progress in

gene sequencing, explains Dr. Michael

Metzlaff, Manager of Research Collabo-

rations for BioScience at Bayer Crop-

Science. Genes and their functions

The art of raising cucumbers

in the laboratory: Bayer

CropSciences Biotechnology

experts and plant breeders

have brought vegetable seeds

to germinate in a Petri dishcontaining a nutrient solution.

dingcan now be identified much more easily

than was the case ten years ago. Since

the decoding of the genome of the model

plant Arabidopsis thaliana, research-

ers have ever more accurate and novel

insights into the interplay of plant genes,

their functions and mutual relationships.

In the meanwhile, researchers have also

decoded the genomes of some major

crops, including corn, rice and oilseed

rape.

Prof. Tonelli mentions only one exam-

ple among many: Plant biotechnology

allows us to identify the most important

genes involved in water use and droughttolerance. Often, whole networks of

genes are responsible for the desired

characteristics. These complex networks,

with their many cross-links, are what

biotechnologists and plant breeders are

trying to decipher and understand.

Raising yields,improving quality

One modern method that takes the

researchers to the heart of the plant cell

to the genome, within the nucleus is

Molecular Breeding. Analytical tech-

niques like this usually give a much

more detailed insight into a plant than

is revealed to the naked eye. These tools

allow the breeding experts of Nunhems

to know, for example, how hot a chili

pepper is likely to taste long before

it develops on the plant. Indeed, it is

possible to change one or more genes

through skillful crossing and selection

in the laboratory to ensure that the plant

expresses the desired property. This

targeted approach to selection saves an

enormous amount of development time,

space in the greenhouse and field tri-

als enabling us to better meet market

demands, comments Dr. Jan van den

Berg, Head of Molecular Breeding for

Nunhems, the vegetable specialists at

Bayer CropScience.

Together with a group of colleagues

including molecular geneticists, bio-

chemists and bioinformaticians, van

den Berg is working to characterize newproperties of vegetables that are associ-

ated with the quality of the fruit, resist-

ance to disease, and yield. This repre-

sents a shift in the work of plant breeders

from the field to the laboratory and not


16/32

6 COURIER 1 | 11 BIOSCIENCE

least to the computer. For this is where

the real challenge begins: bioinforma-

ticians and statisticians have to ana-

lyze, and then interpret, the many data.

Using computer databases, they develop

gene maps that help them to screen the

genetic profile for the genes behind spe-

cific plant properties. Then, using com-

puter analysis, researchers and breeders

even try to define complete crossing

programs for developing new varieties.

Our computer models now provide very

reliable forecasts before we even start

our field trials, Botterman confirms.

Whereas researchers have traditionally

identified the genes theyre interested in

on the basis of a plants appearance, the

team led by Dr. Bart Lambert, Product

Research Manager for Oilseeds in Bio-

Science performs exactly the opposite

of this process: using so-called reverse

genetics, the scientists change a gene

or gene network specifically in order to

equip the plant with a new characteris-

tic. To this end, they treat the seeds with

a substance that causes gene mutations,

which then become randomly distrib-

uted across the genome. Changes like

this also occur in nature. But we speed

up the process of evolution in a tar-

geted way, is how Lambert describes the

approach. Taking thousands of mutant

seed samples, the scientists use conven-

tional methods to select out individuals

that carry a promising mutation in their

genetic material, and then cross them

into new varieties.

Bayer CropScience wants to use reverse

genetics to solve a problem that cur-

rently faces many rapeseed farmers:

seeds often fall to the ground from

mature rape pods before harvesting.

BioScience researchers are developing

plants whose pods do not split so easily.

To this end, they have identified a spe-

cific gene that is involved in controlling

the development of pod tissues. They

now know how to change the activity

of the gene such that the rape pods are

more stable and thus more resistantto splitting.

Developing new seeds:speeding up evolution

Whilst providing their plants with the

capacity for higher yields and increased

resistance, the reserarch team at the

Innovation Center of Bayer CropScience

in Ghent also relies on the still relatively

young field of epigenetics. This line of

research deals with the influence of

environmental factors on networks of

genes. For example, the researchers were

able to clarify why some oilseed rape

plants grow better than others under

certain circumstances despite sharing

the same genetic make up. In fact, stress

can trigger the appearance in plant cells

of short, single-stranded ribonucleic

acid (RNA) molecules that turn off indi-

vidual genes and thereby inhibit plant

growth. If cell biologists can learn to

interpret these epigenetic mechanisms

even better, they will be able to use this

knowledge in future to switch on and off

genes in a more targeted way.

So from the targeted insertion of the

desired properties, through the switch-

ing on and off of individual genes or

networks of genes, to the traditional

methods of selecting and crossing

plant breeders now have an extensive

toolbox. And by cleverly combining

proven technologies, these processes

can be markedly accelerated. Take

hybrid breeding, for example: thismethod takes advantage of the so-called

heterosis effect. This phenomenon can

be observed when crossing two pure-

bred parental lines that are genetically

as different as possible. They produce

Bart Lambert, Product

Researcher for oilseeds,

is working to develop

new canola varieties.

The Bayer CropScience researchers Dr. Jan

van den Berg and Paul Degreef check a new

tomato variety in the greenhouse, where

the plants are trained along white threads.

Ripe seeds fall from the podbefore they can be harvested

The ripe seeds stayin the pod until theyare harvested

Four genes are active

Three genes areinactive

Mutagenesis

Seedling breeding

Reverse genetics: Shatterproof pods for safer harvests

Selection and crossing of seedlings withinactive gene

Four genes in the genetic material of oil-

seed rape are responsible for opening the

pods. Scientists use a substance to stimu-

late random mutations (mutagenesis) and

breed seedlings. They cross only plants inwhich one of the relevant genes is inac-

tive. In this way, they develop oilseed rape

plants with pods that do not open until

they are harvested. Using reverse genetics,

breeders can accelerate natural evolution.


17/32

1 | 11 COURIER 17BIOSCIENCE

Snips in the genetic material

In order to analyze the characteristics of a plant better,

breeders now produce genetic fingerprints from it. These

marker combinations act as a sort of bar code for iden-

tifying particular traits. The so-called SNP analysis is

much in use at the moment because it delivers particular-

ly good markers. With SNP short for single nucleotide

polymorphism the degree of variation among the indi-

vidual base pairs of a DNA strand is determined. These

SNPs pronounced snips are randomly-distributed

point mutations in the genome, tiny genetic differences

that continue to be inherited across the generations in

plants, animals and people. Since many of them correlate

with certain characteristics, they are useful guides to the

genome milestones along the highway, if you like.

Using fully-automated gene analysis and molecular markers,

Bayer CropSciences biotechnology experts are able to investigate

samples from several thousand plants each day. The results help

towards targeted breeding of vegetable varieties.

offspring that are capable of improved performance: the new

hybrids are better yielding and more stress-tolerant than con-

ventional varieties. Bayer CropScience is one of the leading

breeding companies of hybrid rice and oil seed rape varieties.

The breeding process itself is not a secret. The trick is rather

to determine the right locations to select parents with the right

properties that are suited to the particular markets in ques-

tion and then combine the right parents, says Paul Degreef,

Head of Plant Breeding at Nunhems. To meet the needs of

their customers, the researchers are turning to their global

infrastructure: with three research centers and 26 breeding

sites in 14 countries, there is a strong network of coopera-

tion with international colleagues along with an extensive

exchange of germplasm, usually material that already has

one or two interesting features. And this is where the new

molecular markers become important again: They are used to

identify the most promising lines from the large available pool

of seed, thus all the better to steer and speed up the selection

process, says Dirk Decherf, a oilseed rape breeder for Bayer

CropScience.

The molecular markers allow the development of an enor-

mous variety of new plants that differ only in terms of small

nuances, each of which meets a particular customers require-

ments. In this way, Nunhems has developed more than half of

its 2,500 varieties of vegetable seeds in just the last six years.

More will follow. Because the expectations made of each indi-

vidual seed remain great. t Clara Steffens

Robust plant growth Weak plant growth

MicroRNA in the plant is activated by externalstress factors. It controls the number and type ofproteins that are produced.

Nucleus(with geneticmaterial)

Cell

mRNA

Proteins

A B

Energy

Stress factors(e.g. heat,drought andfrost)

Epigenetics: finding gene switches

Epigenetics looks at the impact of environmental factors on

genetic networks. Bayer scientists use it to investigate why

some oilseed rape plants thrive while other plants with identical

genes remain stunted. If the cellular processes take route A, the

plant will have high energy-storing characteristics and will growstrongly. These plants are then used to continue breeding. Variant

B leads to low energy levels and weak plant growth. Scientists

can use this knowledge in future to selectively switch genes on

and off.


18/32

8 COURIER 1 | 11 INTERVIEW

Thanks to recent scientific progress, particularly in the field of biotechnology, plant breeders

now have a well-filled toolbox at their disposal supporting their breeding activities towards

the release of new varieties matching the needs for the farmer and the customer. Dr. Johan

Botterman can confirm this. He is Head of Product Research in the BioScience Research division

of Bayer CropScience in Ghent, Belgium. The multidisciplinary teams are conducting researchtowards the development of improved traits for our crops or of new tools supporting the breed-

ing programs. Recent, new investments will further strengthen the seeds and traits business.

Why is plant biotechnology such an important matter for Bayer

CropScience?

The plants of the future will better fit into environmentally-

compatible and climate-adapted farming approaches because

theyll use less water and yet produce more yield. We also want

to help to provide the growing world population with suf-

ficient quantities of high-quality food at affordable prices.

And how can the new breeding techniques help?

The various techniques used by biochemists and gene experts,

are already complementing the work of our breeders in a cru-

cial way: they make it possible to look deep inside the plant

through the leaves, stems and roots, and into the core of every

cell the genome in the cell nucleus. In this way, we can tell as

early as the seedling stage whether or not a plant will express

a particular feature. This saves time and money: if the develop-

ment of a variety using conventional breeding methods took

around ten years, biotechnological methods can now signifi-

cantly reduce the time needed to complete the selection process.

What is new about the plant biotechnological methods?

Thanks to advances in molecular biology, it is now possible to

characterize the properties of plants on the basis of the genes

they carry. And the more we learn about crops through the use

Investment in seeds and new plant characteristics

Using geneticnetworksandinterdisciplinary

approaches

of biotechnology, the better we can identify the mechanisms

and genetic networks that underlie certain characteristics. We

can then target and change these networks.

Which particular characteristics do the researchers at

BioScience concentrate on?

Our teams in Ghent (Belgium), Morrisville (US) and the col-

leagues from Nunhems (Netherlands) pull rice, cotton, canola,

wheat, soybean and vegetable species through a real fitness

program: they improve the taste, shelf life and the processing

capabilities of e.g. tomatoes, and make crop plants more toler-

ant to stresses such as drought and nutrient deficiency. These

characteristics are much more complicated than those that

were targeted during the early days of plant biotechnology,

i.e. by plant genetic engineering.

How do the new methods differ from the classical plant genetic

engineering approaches?

Plant genetic engineering was basically limited to propertiessuch as insect resistance and herbicide tolerance for pest and

weed control. This early plant biotechnology work mostly

involved the introduction of single genes mostly bacterial in

origin into the gene pools of crops, and varieties of different

crops with these traits are currently on the market. Advances


19/32

1 | 11 COURIER 19INTERVIEW

expand our research activities as well. A recent example is

the new greenhouse complex at Research Triangle Park, North

Carolina, the site of our U.S. Headquarters. Bayer CropSci-

ence is investing around 20 million U.S. dollars into this new

facility. The greenhouses are designed for research into both

genetically-modified and conventional plants. The greenhouse

complex being part of the new Innovation Centre at Morris-

ville will quickly develop into an important research center

for Bayer CropScience. In addition, we also would like to make

better use of the growing innovative strength in Asia; coun-

tries like China have defined agriculture as a strategic area of

their economy and are committed to fund innovation in this

sector in order to match the needs of their growing population.

What excites you most about plant biotechnology?

Mendels rules, chromosomes and epigenetics: these are all

important basics for modern genetics and cell biology, and

they were all discovered through work on the plant genome.

Only later were the findings applied to humans and further

explored for medical purposes. Research into plant molecular

biology is more diversified than the study of human cell biol-

ogy. Because each plant species brings its own challenges: rice

is built differently from rape, for example. And whereas one

rice variety can be resistant to flooding, another can immedi-

ately find itself under stress.t

in genome sequencing and biotechnology now offer us new

selection techniques that can equip plants with improved char-

acteristics such as tolerance to drought and nutrient and light

deprivation, or can increase their yield potential. Because of

the complexity of these properties, it is no longer sufficient

simply to introduce a single gene into a plant.

Your work involves dealing with large data sets. How do you

manage to keep an overview?

Of course, wherever large amounts of data are collected, the

support of bioinformaticians and statisticians and their tools

is essential. Here in Ghent for example, the number of bioin-

formaticians among the 300 staff has risen within a few years

from five to more than 30. And international cooperation is

becoming increasingly important to achieve success with our

research targets: we are already cooperating with numerous

companies, universities and other research institutions around

the world. And we want to integrate new technologies into our

portfolio even more intensively in the future.

So the BioScience unit will become even more important in

the future?

Yes, Bayer CropScience has recognized the seeds and traits

business as an attractive growth opportunity for further

investment and is willing to commit financial resources to

Researching for the future: with the help of his team, Dr. Johan Botterman, Head of BioScience

Product Research at Bayer CropScience, is searching for plants that are better suited to an

ecologically-balanced agriculture, and can also cope with changes in climatic conditions.

Extensive programsfor improving cul-

tivated plants such

as canola and rice

are running at the

Research Institute

in Gent.


20/32

0 COURIER 1 | 11 TECHNOLOGY

Protectingcornseedlings againstcompetition

New corn herbicide Adengo revolutionizes early weed control

Early weed infestation is one of the most serious threats to maize crops. Bayer CropScience

can now offer a novel approach to dealing with this problem: Adengo, an innovative her-

bicide that reliably removes even difficult-to-control weeds. A vital start for young corn

plants and greater security for farmers during a particularly sensitive stage of cultivation.


21/32

1 | 11 COURIER 21TECHNOLOGY

Corn farmers dont have iteasy. They spend many a sleepless nightworrying about their crops. Its not just

pests such as the dreaded Western corn

rootworm that are the problem weedy

competitors can significantly affect the

corn plant too. Especially in the early

growth phase: as soon as the maize seed-

lings penetrate into the soil, they have tostart competing with all sorts of weeds for

water, light and nutrients. Without the

proper use of effective herbicides, the deli-

cate seedlings can lose this battle often

with serious consequences, as Raimund

Trapp knows: If something goes wrong

during early weed control in maize crops,

then yield losses in the double-digit per-

centage range can occur, says the Bayer

CropScience Global Segment Manager

for Maize Herbicides, based in Monheim,

Germany.

With Adengo, Bayer CropScience is now

offering a product that protects plantsagainst competition from weeds during

exactly this stage, thus allowing seedlings

to develop unhampered. This new broad-

spectrum herbicide is capable of reliable

control of more than 85 weedy grass and

broadleaved weed species. Over the last

few years, it has been brought onto the

market as Adengo in Argentina, Hungary,

Romania and Ukraine, and under the trade

name Corvus in the U.S. Further launches

in various countries around the globe are

planned over the next three years.

The great advantage of Adengo is that

it provides a so-called one-shot solution,says Trapp. The new product is capable

of covering the entire spectrum of eco-

nomically important weeds in one pass.

This means that tank mixtures with other

herbicides or additional sprays are only

The Bayer CropScience

Corn Herbicide Man-

ager Raimund Trapp

gains a first-handimpression of the effi-

cacy of Adengo.

With its new herbicide Adengo, Bayer

CropScience is offering farmers a prod-

uct that protects the crop from weed

competition during the vital early growth

phase. The young corn plants can develop

undisturbed.


22/32

2 COURIER 1 | 11

played its part in the attainment of an

award: it helped Ferenc Mik, a farmer

living in Central Hungary, to achieve a

spectacular harvest on his 1,800-hectare

area under cultivation: By producing

almost 18.4 tons per Hectare, the farmer

won the 2010 National Corn Yield Compe-tition This represents peak yield both in

Hungary and in Europe, says Rikk.

High level of customersatisfaction

Adengos special feature is its innova-

tive mixture of active substances. The

product combines two broadly effective

substances: isoxaflutole, a proven active

substance from the class of so-called

bleachers; and the ALS inhibitors thien-

necessary in exceptional cases. Because it

can be used from pre-emergence through

to the early post-emergence phase, the

new product is also the tool of choice for

farmers who want to be flexible in terms

of the timing of application. That means

a lightening of peak workloads for thefarmer, he points out. And because the

new herbicide only needs to be applied at

very low doses, the expenses of transport,

storage and disposal of packaging materi-

als are also lower.

Extended window of appli-cation increases flexibility

Benefits that are already being appreci-

ated by many farmers. For example, in

Hungary: In the past, we had serious

problems with various weeds, such as

Panicum miliaceum and Echinochloa

crus-galli, says Tams Kkai, Head of

Crop Protection at Agro Systems Co. of

Herceghalom in central Hungary. But

Amaranth, Chenopodium, Datura, and

Xanthium were also of concern on the

companys 1,500-hectare area under cul-

tivation.

Problems that belong to the past now

thanks to Adengo. The products biggest

advantage is its broad spectrum of weed

control, explains Kkai. Followed by the

high degree of flexibility the new herbi-

cide offers by virtue of its long window of

application: We farm a large area. If theweather doesnt cooperate, we may need

to interrupt the pre-emergence treatment

while the plants are already beginning

to germinate. But thats not a problem

with Adengo: the treatment can simply

continue in the post-emergence phase.

Words of approval that Istvn Rikk likes

to hear. Our customers are very satisfied

with Adengo, says the Crop Manager for

Corn and Sunflower with Bayer CropSci-

ence Hungary. Hes particularly proud of

the fact that the new product has even

Redroot amaranth

(Amaranthus retroflexus)

Jimson weed

(Datura stramonium)

Toms Kka is the Head of the Crop

Protection area for Agro Systems in

Central Hungary. His experiences with

Adengo have been very good.

The Hungarian farmer Ferenc

Mik was able to increase

the yield of his maize crops

with the help of Adengo.

Istvn Rikk, Crop Manager for

Bayer CropScience in Hungary,

knows that his customers are

highly satisfied with Adengo.


23/32

1 | 11 COURIER 23TECHNOLOGY

carbazone-methyl, which was recently

developed in Bayer CropSciences labo-

ratories.

The two active substances target entirely

different metabolic processes. Isoxaflu-

tole ensures that the weed plant loses its

natural protection from sunlight. It does

this by blocking the activity of an enzyme

that is needed for the synthesis of the pig-

ment keratin, which otherwise protects

the green leaf pigment chlorophyll from

overexposure to light energy. The result:

the leaves whiten, and the weed collapses.

Thiencarbazone-methyl blocks a different

enzyme in the weeds one that is respon-

sible for the synthesis of three essential

amino acids that are ultimately needed for

a number of different proteins. Without

these three protein building blocks, the

plant stops growing and finally dies off.The two substances act very effectively

against a broad range of plants, but are

generally well tolerated by maize crops.

In order to ensure that this compatibility

is consistent under various conditions,

Adengo also contains the substance

cyprosulfamide: this so-called safener

ensures that the active substances are

broken down very quickly specifically

by the corn plant. In this way, the crop is

protected, but the target weeds are killed

off quickly.

The two active substances are both soil-

and leaf-active: in pre-emergence treat-

ment, Adengo is sprayed to form a film

on the soil surface. As soon as rain trig-

gers germination, the weeds start to grow

through this film, taking up the active

substance in the process. It also enters the

plant through the roots and the hypocotyl

the lowermost section of the shoot axis.

After post-emergence sprays, weeds take

up the active substances via the young

leaves, as well as through the hypocotyl

and root.

A safener protectsmaize plants

Corn growers beyond Hungary are also

enthusiastic about the new herbicide.

During 2010 in particular with its vari-able weather conditions many of them

were able to benefit from a further advan-

tage: the mixture of active substances in

Adengo starts to become active just as

the weeds begin to germinate, i.e. as soon

as the soil is moist. During periods of

drought, they become temporarily inac-

tive only to resume their activity as soon

as it starts to rain again.

For corn experts, Adengo is also an impor-

tant tool for integrated weed manage-

ment, the specific objective of which is to

prevent the development of weed resist-

ance and to reduce the spread of existing

herbicide resistance. Adengo has already

proven itself an important element of

effective control strategies in many situ-

ations.

Given all of these qualities, it is no wonder

that Bayer CropScience is seeking to posi-

tion Adengo at the top of the list of early

weed control segment herbicides. Adengo

has the potential to become every corn

growers personal number one herbicide

all around the world, Trapp summarizesthe feed back of his country colleagues:

The high degree of acceptance already

shown in five countries is an encouraging

sign.t Katja Nau

Common millet

(Panicum miliaceum)

Barnyard grass

(Echinochloa crus-galli)

Rough cocklebur

(Xanthium strumarium)


24/32

4 COURIER 1 | 11 PANORAMA24COURIER 1| 11

Without any support from harvest-

ing machinery, farmers hand-pick

the ripe fruits from cocoa trees. The

skin of the pods can then be opened

with a machete.


25/32

Soft outside, hard centre: thedelicate creation slowly liquefies on thetongue at first, then gradually beginsto melt faster the sweet covering of

dark chocolate dissolves away, finally

revealing a small green pistachio ker-

nel. When chocolate melts in the mouth,

its a magical, almost heavenly feeling.

Only perfect cocoa delivers the perfect

taste, says Urs Liechti, Master Choco-

latier at Lindt, an international choco-

late maker based in Switzerland. Thats

why the 18th Century Swedish natural-

ist Carl von Linn gave the cocoa tree

on which chocolate production entirely

depends the botanical name Theo-

broma cacao, which is Greek for food of

the gods. These days, years of breeding

activity have resulted in the availability

of many different varieties.

The most important varieties for cocoa

production are called Criollo, Foras-tero and Trinitario. Two of these varie-

ties Criollo and Trinitario produce

fine-quality cocoa and are well-known

among gourmets as being the best in

the world; however, their joint produc-

tion represents less than five per cent

of the world crop. The problem is, they

are particularly vulnerable to pests and

diseases. In contrast, the third variety,

Forastero, is more resistant, which is

why it makes up more than 80 percent of

the worlds production. Its cocoa is less

intense to the taste-buds, and is rather

for everyday consumption.

The condition of the beans is importantfor achieving the perfect taste just as

only ripe pineapples have a good flavor,

says the cocoa and chocolate expert Urs

Liechti. The degree of maturation and

fermentation must also be just right.

This is why he and his colleagues always

check samples of new shipments before

purchasing. At this point though, the

cocoa tastes very different from the final

chocolate product: sharp, slightly sour,

and bitter and without foreign flavors

is how Liechti describes it.It was precisely because of this bitter

taste that the Spanish conquistadors

were initially unenthusiastic about the

drink made from the Central American

bean. The greasy beverage was appar-

A bitter beanthats in hot demandThe more delicate the fruit, the more susceptible the plants are to pests and diseases.

And when it comes to their growing environment, cocoa trees are very choosy. Only

the warmest and wettest tropical regions will do such as those found in the Ivory

Coast, Brazil and Indonesia. From there, the precious beans are transported to Europe

and North America, where the most chocolate is consumed in puddings, as mousse,

in champagne truffles, as chocolate bars or in chocolate nuts. There is no limit to the

diversity of expression of the chocolates seductive sweetness.

Cocoa is a valuable export product

1 | 11 COURIER 25PANORAMA

High-quality cocoa and just the right recipe are need-

ed to give the various types of chocolate and pralinestheir characteristic aroma. And at the very end of the

production process lies the confectionary wrapping,

the promise of the exquisite taste to come.


26/32

ently so far removed from being a pleas-

urable experience that the Pope even

gave his blessing for it to be drunk dur-

ing lent. This is why cocoa landed first

in the pharmacy, as a bitter medicine to

be taken by emaciated patients. Broader

success came only when the chocolate

was sweetened with sugar. These days,

Europeans and North Americans are the

most dedicated consumers of chocolate

bars, pralines etc. The front-runners in

terms of consumption include Switzer-

land and Germany: according to the

Association of Swiss chocolate manu-

facturers, the Swiss population con-

sumed an average of twelve kilograms

of chocolate each in 2010, equivalent to

120 bars per person.

Cocoa foodof the Gods

But the main consuming countries of

Europe and North America cant pro-

vide the demanding growing conditions

required by cocoa trees: Theobroma

cacaoonly grows in the warmest and

wettest tropical regions, between lati-

tudes 20 degrees north and 20 degrees

south. The most important producing

countries today are the Ivory Coast,

Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Brazil, Ecua-

dor, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The beans are harvested, fermented and

dried by hand a labor-intensive pro-

cess.

While the coveted cocoa beans are pro-

duced mainly in Africa, South America

and Asia, the major producers of choco-

late and cocoa products are located in

Europe and North America. Most pro-

cessing of raw cocoa takes place there

too. According to Caobisco, the Manu-

facturers Association, the European

confectionery industry consumes about

half the worlds cocoa bean production,

sourcing mainly from Africa.

Speculation leads todistortion of the market

When not being used for pralines and

fine chocolate, cocoa is usually used

in powder form as a raw material for

sauces, cookies, ice cream, chocolate

mousse, puddings, chocolate drinksand other sweet products. Cocoa also

serves as the basis for most confection-

ary glazes. Cocoa butter is formed as a

by-product in the production of cocoa

powder, and it is mostly used in choco-

late. But cocoa butter is also used in the

pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries,

for example in lotions and creams: even

some spa bath products contain essences

of the popular bean these days.

Cocoa is traded primarily on the com-

modity futures exchanges in London

and New York. As recently as July

2010, the cocoa price in London rose to

its highest level in 33 years; in other

words, the key ingredient of chocolate

had risen in price by 50 percent within

a year. Production (around 3.6 million

tonnes of cocoa beans in 2009/2010,

according to ICCO, the International

Cocoa Organization) can hardly keep up

with the growing demand, so the situa-

tion in the cocoa market remains tense.

And the bitter taste is spreading: trad-

ers and processing companies have been

complaining recently about an increase

in speculation on agricultural markets,

fearing that it will produce severe mar-

ket distortions. Indeed, about 60 million

tonnes of cocoa beans are traded every

year several times the actual global

harvest, which itself is also vulnerable

to various pressures. For example the

export ban imposed at the beginning of

2011 by the Ivory Coast the worlds

largest cocoa supplier, with productionof one million tons per year which

led to another price hike. By late Feb-

ruary of this year, the price of cocoa

had reached a peak again, at 3.81 U.S.

dollars per kilo. High cocoa prices are

likely to impact on consumer prices in

the medium term.

For some 6.5 million farmers world-

wide, cocoa is the crop that guarantees

their ability to make a living. While the

majority of the African harvest is bought

up by Europe, Indonesia exports mainly

to other Asian countries and to North

and South America. We cant provide a

substitute for the African cocoa, because

the quality of our produce is not accept-

26COURIER 1| 11 PANORAMA

Cocoa mealybug (Planococcus

lilacinus) infestation on maturecocoa pods.

Symptoms of the fungus Oncoba-

sidium theobromae on infected cocoa

leaves.

Help againstdiseases and pests

Fungi, viruses and other pests: cocoa has

many enemies. The fine-quality cocoa varie-

ties are particularly vulnerable, and are hard-ly able to defend themselves. When cocoa pod

borer larvae hatch from their eggs, they bore

into the cocoa fruit, eating the flesh, and leav-

ing an entry hole for other pests. Something is

needed to prevent the moths from continuing

to spread and destroying much of the harvest:

Bayer CropScience has a product in its port-

folio that targets precisely this type of biting

and sucking insects the insecticide Decis.

Farmers also have a lot of problems with the

fungus Oncobasidium theobromae, especially

in Southeast Asia: cocoa trees under attack

by this pathogen lose their leaves and die off.

Bayer CropScience can support cocoa farmers

here, too the fungicide Bayfidan can check

the progress of the epidemic. And the herbi-

cide Basta also helps to control unwanted

plant intruders in the plantations.


27/32

able to the European market, says Zul-

hefi Sikumbang, the chairman of the

Indonesian Cocoa Association.

Cocoa farmers in Africa, Asia and South

America are often faced with similar

challenges: for Theobroma cacao is a

very vulnerable tree. Serious crop losses

through pests and diseases are common,

and farmers must do everything they

can to protect their trees. This is why

they depend on pesticides in their battle

against the cocoa pod borer and fungal

diseases such as Phytophthora pod rot.

Otherwise, they can reckon with yield

losses of up to 50 percent. To increase

productivity and income from their

plantations, farmers in Malaysia are

increasingly planting catch crops or

even moving out of cocoa production

altogether: the trend is for growing oilpalm and rubber trees, explains Teo

Kee Chiong, Crop Manager for Planta-

tions with Bayer CropScience Malay-

sia. Overall, the cultivation of cocoa in

Malaysia has fallen steadily from a peak

of 414,000 hectares in 1989 to around

20,000 hectares in 2010. The reasons

for this include low prices on the world

market and a growing labor shortage.

More and more cocoa must therefore be

imported for further processing, accord-

ing to Kee Chiong. These days, more

than 70 percent of the cocoa beans that

are processed in Malaysia come from

plantations in Indonesia.

Susceptible to pestsand diseases

According to Final Prajnanta, Head

of Marketing at Bayer CropScience in

Jakarta, Indonesia, his country is the

second largest producer of cocoa in the

world behind the Ivory Coast. Ninety

percent of the cocoa area there is cul-

tivated by small farmers a total of

1.6 million hectares in 2009, grown

mainly in Sulawesi and Sumatra. But

the Indonesians themselves consume on

average only 600 grams per person per

year. While about 10 percent of cocoa

production stays with our local choco-

late producers, 90 percent is exported,

reports Prajnanta. In 2009, a disaster

hit the farmers: the entire harvest from

70,000 hectares of cocoa was lost either

to moths, or to fungal diseases; on afurther 235,000 hectares, the harvest

shrank by about a half.

This is why it would be helpful to have

plants with stronger resistance. But

researchers have long considered cocoa

1 | 11 COURIER 27

Only the perfect bean delivers the perfect aroma

The exact recipe for producing each type of chocolate remains, of course, a secret.

Nevertheless, Urs Liechti likes to give his visitors an insight into the art of the

cocoa processing. Liechti is Master Chocolatier at Lindt, an international choco-

late maker with its company headquarters in Kilchberg, Switzerland.

Why is good-quality cocoa such an important prerequisite for good chocolate?

Because we can only create the perfect flavor using the perfect bean. But every-

thing has to be just right from the maturation process through to the fermenta-

tion and final processing of the cocoa mass. The most important element here

really is the cocoa bean: if the quality is not right there, then the chocolate wont

taste good. Thats why we make sure that all cocoa deliveries go through strict

quality controls as soon as they arrive here.

How does each different type of chocolate develop its own unique taste?

That depends on how the different varieties of cocoa are blended together in the

end, that is the secret recipe of each chocolate manufacturer. But the processing

is also important: the cocoa mass is mixed with sugar (and for milk chocolate,with milk powder too) and often a little vanilla as well. Then the chocolate has to

be rolled out thinly: otherwise, the cocoa and sugar particles would leave a sandy

feeling in the mouth. We then conch the chocolate kneading and stirring it for

several hours and only then does it develop its unique flavor and ability to m

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