Active Ingredients
Martin Clough, now Head CP R&D Technology & Digital Integration speaks from our Stein R&D Center about the innovation behind precisely-designed active ingredients.
Putting a safe, sustainable and flexible toolbox into the hands of farmers
Farmers of all sizes in all agricultural systems must meet the needs and expectations of food processors and retailers, consumers, society and our planet.
Crop protection is one of the world’s most highly regulated industries. To gain and maintain registration, a chemical must be shown to be safe for workers, the environment, crops and consumers.
Syngenta is a world market leader in crop protection products, offering farmers an extensive toolbox of solutions. We develop and produce herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and seed treatment products that promote strong and healthy growth.
Our products and solutions protect crops and enhance the ability of plants to defend themselves. They can be based on world-class chemistry or naturally occurring substances and processes (biocontrols). We bring these together with new monitoring techniques, precision application, fast-developing digital technologies and new breeding techniques.
Whatever the solution, we take our responsibilities seriously when it comes to making each one safe and sustainable for farmers, the whole of society and the planet.
Innovating crop protection for the future
Protecting crops means investing significantly in research and development. We don’t find active ingredients by chance. We design them and it can take 8 to 10 years to reach commercial launch.
Pests and diseases are a constantly evolving threat, and the changing environment makes it even harder for farmers to grow their crops. So, we’re accelerating the pace of our innovation to meet constantly changing natural threats and society’s increasing expectations.
Whether we design a breakthrough ‘blockbuster’ molecule or develop an active ingredient for a specific purpose, our product development is driven by scientific insights gained by working closely with farmers in the field. We include safety and sustainability criteria from the very beginning.
To create successful solutions, we need diversity of ideas and expertise. We don’t work alone but have collaborations with many partners such as universities, research institutes and sustainable agriculture experts.
Our key crop protection products and innovations
Our solutions protect crops against weeds, insects and diseases. They also include technologies that support strong and healthy plant growth.
ACURON®: A breakthrough against resistant weeds
Weeds that are resistant to the herbicide glyphosate can cause significant yield losses and raise the costs of crop protection for growers.
Our work to meet this challenge led to a series of new products including ACURON®, a herbicide used in cereals, which is based on a new chemical combined with three other active ingredients. It improves the control of more than 70 weeds that are increasingly difficult for growers to manage, such as Palmer amaranth and giant ragweed.
ADEPIDYN™: A unique broad-spectrum fungicide
ADEPIDYN™: A unique broad spectrum fungicide
ADEPIDYN™ is a new fungicide belonging to the carboxamide chemical class and the first member of a new chemical group N-methoxy-(phenyl-ethyl)-pyrazole-carboxamide.
Delivering a step change in leaf spot control (such as Cercospora, Alternaria and Venturia) and excellent control of powdery mildew in many crops, ADEPIDYN™ is also highly effective against difficult-to-control diseases such as Fusarium Head Blight, Botrytis, Sclerotinia and Corynespora, which cause severe damage on key crops.
CLARIVA®: Control of a major threat to soybeans
Nematodes are microscopic worm-shaped soil organisms that cause significant damage to all major agricultural crops. CLARIVA® is an innovative seed treatment based on natural soil bacteria that protects a plant’s root system from these pests.
Nematodes are a huge challenge for soybean growers in particular: in the US alone, the cost of lost soybean can be more than a billion dollars a year . CLARIVA® protects the plants throughout the crop’s season and works in variable environmental conditions.
ELATUS™: Control of soybean rust and other diseases
ELATUS™ is a ground-breaking fungicide that provides superior, longer-lasting control of soybean rust and a broad range of fungal diseases in several other crops.
By using ELATUS™ as the mainstay of disease control programs, growers benefit from more consistent performance, leading to higher and more predictable yields.
FORTENZA®: Combatting insects in major crops
Our innovation has given growers a powerful tool to manage insects in all major field crops, including corn, soybean and sunflower, in multiple countries.
FORTENZA® was specifically developed to control Lepidoptera and chewing and sucking pests. It is used to combat early-season pests both above ground, on foliage, and below, as a seed treatment. It also complements the performance of insect-resistant seed traits.
ORONDIS®: a step change for vegetable and specialty crop growers.
ORONDIS® offers vegetable and specialty crop growers a new level of control over diseases such as downy mildew and late blight, which devastate crops and diminish yields.
Its new mode of action expands our market-leading fungicide portfolio and helps address increasing resistance to some products. ORONDIS® can be used at significantly lower rates than other fungicides.
ISABION®: Overcoming natural threats to rice
Sudden or extreme heat and cold threaten the health of young rice plants. ISABION®, a biostimulant, helps such plants to better withstand these stresses. By enhancing a plant’s nutrient uptake, ISABION® mitigates the impact of both heat and cold – something that is particularly important considering climate change.
First available to rice growers in Asia, ISABION® is being offered in more countries and for other crops.
ELESTAL™ Neo
ELESTAL™ Neo is a new solution for controlling sucking pests like whiteflies, aphids, psyllids which devastate both high value vegetables and fruits as well as field crops like soybeans and cotton. It contains the patented active ingredient spiropidion and protects the whole plant including its untreated new growths for longer duration, securing crop quality, yields and the livelihood of farmers. Moreover, ELESTAL™ Neo is safe to pollinators and many beneficial insects and will provide farmers with a new tool to grow crops productively and sustainably. The first registration was obtained in Guatemala in September 2020 followed by Paraguay in March 2021. Further launches of ELESTAL™ Neo are planned in several countries over the next years.
Innovative new technologies
Nematodes not only attack crops but also open a path to further fungal infection. TYMIRIUM™ technology offers excellent control of both nematodes and soil-borne diseases, especially Fusarium species. TYMIRIUM™ technology provides long-lasting protection against a broad spectrum of nematode pests and diseases across all major crops and geographies.
TYMIRIUM™ technology can be used as seed or soil treatment in all major crops. Compatible with all types of Seed and Soil- application systems
Sustainability: Low dose, TYMIRIUM™ technology plays a critical part in enabling no-tillage and conservation-tillage practices
Like to know more?
Research and development
We have 5,000 R&D colleagues all over the world solving farmers’ challenges
Crop protection in detail
There’s more information about the Syngenta Crop Protection business in our Sustainable Business Report