Verdesian: Sustainability Goes Hand in Hand with Profits

Sustainability is a hot topic in agriculture these days. And while measuring sustainability and its on-farm impact can seem difficult to define, one nutrient use efficiency company is helping farmers define success with sustainability and adopt new tools, technologies and practices that support it.

“At Verdesian Life Sciences, we define sustainability as continuous agronomic and environmental improvement that is both sustainable and profitable – that means helping farmers outdo what they’ve always done on every acre,” says Greg Thompson, Verdesian president and chief operating officer. “What we define we can measure and, therefore, improve.”

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Verdesian is committed to helping farmers maintain and improve water quality and soil health, but without hurting their profit potential. The Verdesian product portfolio includes innovative technologies that help improve nutrient use efficiency and nutrient uptake, helping farmer sustainability efforts, increasing crop quality and yields, and making them more profitable, at the same time.

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“Sustainability and profitability are not mutually exclusive,” says Thompson. “Farmers have to remain in business to implement sustainable practices, so profitability is crucial. Nutrient management and efficiency technologies are designed to enhance crop uptake of inputs, simultaneously improving crop quality and yields while reducing the potential risk of nutrient loss to the environment.”

Maximizing nutrient efficiency means making more fertilizer accessible for plant uptake, where it can be used for plant growth and performance, rather than lost to the environment or moved offsite. One way to maximize nutrient efficiency is for farmers to adopt the 4Rs Nutrient Stewardship program, meaning they apply fertilizer from the right source, at the right rate, right time and right place.

Another way to maximize nutrient efficiency is to use advanced technologies like NutriSphere-N Nitrogen Fertilizer Manager to protect applied nitrogen (N) from loss to the environment, or AVAIL Phosphorus Fertilizer Enhancer to reduce the fixation of applied phosphorus, keeping more of it available for plant uptake. These are just two examples of how the Verdesian product portfolio encourages profitability and sustainability at the same time.

“We believe farmers can improve water quality and soil health through more efficient nutrient stewardship,” says Thompson. “That means getting more nutrients directly into the plant, where they can be used by a crop that needs them. We must maximize nutrient efficiency at both the macro and micro level, ensuring that nutrients are available for plant uptake.”

In addition, Verdesian works with agronomists, farmers and industry partners to look at agronomic issues like soil health and ensure their technologies and practices are sustainable and profitable. Unlike older nitrogen stabilizer technologies, Verdesian technologies address soil health concerns by providing N management technologies that do not kill beneficial soil bacteria and microbes that contribute to crop health and yield.

“Many sustainability challenges can be addressed as agronomic opportunities – if we can help farmers address the needs of their crops, their soil and their water, we can improve the impact they have on the land and on our communities,” says Thompson.

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