Seed treatments have been used to protect crops since the first century B.C., when the influential Roman author Virgil wrote about farmers drenching seeds in nitrum, obtained from natural deposits in Egypt, and amurca, watery residue obtained as a by-product during the crushing of olives for oil. The combination of nitrum and amurca was believed to guard against insects and increase yields. But a glance at the history of global crop protection shows that for many centuries growers were skeptical of seed treatments and strongly favored other methods of protecting crops from yield-robbing insects and diseases. 

Today, modern seed treatments are challenging that historical trend. Seed treatments are proving not only they are as effective as traditional methods of crop protection, but also they are more convenient, require less handling and can save growers time, labor and money.

“If retailers aren't treating seed now, they're actively trying to get into it,” said Mike Powell, products manager for Helena Chemical Company in Memphis, Tenn. Powell has been managing on-site seed treatment for almost a decade, and has watched the seed treatment market - and industry perceptions - evolve.

“When we first started treating seed, people said we were crazy. They said growers would never buy it,” Powell said. That was in 1997, when seed treatment fungicides had already begun winning over growers in some parts of the United States; but grower acceptance was slow-coming in the Mid-South. “It took us some selling to convince farmers that a seed treatment could do as good of a job as an in-furrow product or an expensive fungicide program,” Powell said. “We really had to work to show growers the value of seed treatments.”

Part of the reason growers were skeptical of modern seed treatments is that until the launch of the first systemic fungicide seed treatment in 1960, seed treatments served only as seed sterilants. They protected only the seed, not the developing seedling, and were viewed as insurance that seeds would germinate, not as an essential method of crop protection.  

But over the next few decades, seed treatment formulation and application technology expanded the capabilities of seed treatments, leading to a gradual increase in industry approval. Then, the introduction of new, improved fungicides and insecticides in the 1990s marked the beginning of the modern era of seed treatments. Two innovative products from that decade that helped change the role and perception of modern seed treatments are Cruiser® seed treatment, introduced globally in 1997, which has become a leading insecticide on corn, cotton, sorghum, wheat and sunflowers, and Maxim® XL seed treatment, launched globally in 1993, which has quickly gained acceptance as the standard fungicide used on more than 95% of U.S. corn seed.

“Attitudes toward seed treatments have changed because today's seed treatments are more efficacious than seed treatments used in the past, and also because growers are gaining confidence that seed treatments will not only protect their crop and yields, but also save time and money,” Powell said.  

And attitudes toward seed treatments are expected to continue improving. Worth $900 million in 2001, the world seed treatment market is forecast to rise to $1.2 billion by 2007, according to a 2002 executive summary on seed treatment trends and opportunities from London-based publisher Agrow Report. Advancements in technology and the introduction of new products, particularly high-value GMO seed, are expected to play a major part in that growth and will continue to encourage industry perceptions of seed treatments to evolve.

AVICTA™ Complete Pak is one example of a new seed treatment technology that will have a powerful and lasting impact on the role of seed treatments in U.S. cotton production. Available to cotton growers in time for the 2006 planting and growing season, AVICTA Complete Pak will be introduced as the only product offering “complete” cotton seedling protection against all types of destructive pests - nematodes, insects and diseases. It will be offered as a promotional combination of three separately registered products: AVICTA, a novel seed treatment nematicide, Cruiser seed treatment insecticide and Dynasty CST® seed-delivered fungicide. As the first new option for nematode control introduced in more than 30 years, AVICTA Complete Pak will not only have a significant impact on U.S. cotton production, but also will help continue raising industry expectations of seed treatments and their capabilities.

AVICTA™, Cruiser®, Maxim® and Dynasty CST® are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company.