NuWay® is AECI Plant Health’ response to addressing the challenges facing conventional agricultural practices and meeting the demands of a more informed consumer seeking supply chain transparency and improved health benefits from the food consumed. Conventional agricultural practices over the past 70 years have delivered on the global demand for greater levels of food production – but often to the detriment of the environment and scarce resources. 

Demand for food continues to rise, and projections indicate that the global population will double from 2015 to 2050 to reach 9 billion people. The food production industry cannot continue to apply current practices and hope to meet this demand, especially where regulations are reducing the number of actives available for use. Furthermore, there is insufficient land and water to apply a straight line approach and so we need to work smarter and increase agricultural productivity: producing more, using less inputs on less land.

Our NuWay® approach to agriculture begins with an assessment of the farmers’ main pain points and strives to uncover the root causes rather than seeking reactive or quick fix solutions. Typically, this will begin with an understanding of the status of the soil addressing the physical, chemical or biological deficiencies. We seek to build healthy soils that better retain nutrients and water to buffer against environmental stresses and recycle nutrients from soil organic matter.

Healthy soils contribute to healthy plants. Soils which allow oxygen and water to permeate through them stimulate beneficial soil biology. This biological community accepts nutrients from the roots and in return makes other nutrients available from the soil matrix to deliver added organic metabolites and minerals the plant needs for optimal growth and to combat stress and disease. The NuWay® programme seeks to ensure that crop energy levels are optimised to give the plant the best chance of achieving yield targets, product quality and fighting pest pressure.

Optimal soil health will also contribute significantly to better managing scare resources such as water and topsoil structure, whilst reducing water runoff, erosion and water resource contamination.

The objectives of our NuWay® programme are to proactively address the needs of the crop and, in so doing, reduce the reactive, and often overly aggressive response by the farmer when a crop is in trouble. Building soil capacity, optimising the crop’s own inherent ability to fight disease pressure and minimising the indiscriminate use of fertilisers and agrochemicals is a long term win-win, for the farmer and the consumer.

Producing better quality food with less chemical residues is the ultimate objective of our NuWay® programme.

For more information contact them at 011-823-8000, andre.cilliers@aeciworld.com or visit their website: www.aeciworld.com