Developing Smarter Crop Nutrition
September 1, 2025 Every year retailers and their grower-customers go through the Herculean task of deciding what it takes to maximize that growing season’s crops. Unpredictable weather, insects, fungus, and diseases complicate their decisions and can lead to deep cuts to yield.
Fortunately, growers have a number of technological advancements that help limit or even eliminate the negative effects. Every year, the available tools help mitigate the myriad challenges. Artificial intelligence might be getting the bulk of recent headlines, but when it comes down to it, properly applied crop nutrients are critical to success.
“As understanding of micronutrients grows, farmers seek ways to overcome the Law of Minimum and look to technologies that help them deliver on the 4Rs of nutrient stewardship to select products that enhance uptake, efficiency, and distribution in the plant,” says Muhammad Chragh, Technical Agronomist, Koch Agronomic Services (KAS).
In the past few years, manufacturers have learned more about the role crop nutrition products play in soil health and about their ability to increase yield have led on a path to deliver more effective and more productive solutions. They’ve invested that knowledge in creating new products and share their understanding with retailers and their grower-customers.
“As growers focus on their macro and micro-nutrient inputs, and become more aware of the importance of micronutrients, demand for micronutrients will likely increase,” Chragh says. “Weather is always a complicating factor each growing season, so it will be important to assess the need for micronutrients based on the conditions in specific regions. We also expect growers to continue to adopt the 4R nutrient stewardship principles and seek out products that offer a better return on investment and environmental benefits.”
The ability to understand how crop nutrients improve crops does not come cheaply. Companies like KAS have invested millions of dollars into learning about the complex interplay between nutrients and the crops they support.
“The science of crop micronutrients has evolved significantly leading to a deeper understanding of their specific roles in plant physiology, the identification of micronutrient deficiencies in modern crop varieties, and the development of more targeted methods to deliver micronutrients,” Chragh says.
Because of those investments: “The industry now has a more precise understanding of how individual micronutrients like zinc, iron, manganese, boron, and copper contribute to various plant processes, including photosynthesis, enzyme activity, hormone regulation, and cell-wall development,” Chragh says. “Mindset transition from snake oils to scientific-based and data-driven research is on the rise and is making progress in developing and delivering new technologies.”
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