The National Corn Growers Association’s Off the Cob podcast sat down recently with Monsanto Global Technology Ag Productivity Crop Team Lead Matt Helms for a discussion on ag biologicals, the BioAg Alliance and the future pipeline of these products.
Having grown up on a family farm, along with an educational background in agronomy, and given his lifelong involvement with corn farming, Helms speaks enthusiastically about one of the most exciting emerging technologies in agriculture – ag biologicals. Throughout the interview, he shares his scientific understanding of the technologies along with a perspective on the future of such products and his understanding of the benefits that they can offer to farmers and the public at large alike.
“Ag biologicals are a really exciting area in agriculture today, as we are always looking to protect and enhance the crop that farmers produce and what they base their annual decisions upon every year,” he explained. “Biologicals is an area that has been around for a long period of time. It is utilizing sources or processes found in nature, things like microbes that are very abundant in our soil and trying to find ways that they can enhance crops to provide better growth, better uptake of things in the soil such as applied nutrients or ways that they can protect plants from things like diseases and insects.
“It is an exciting area that is coming together due to changes in things like research and development capabilities but also, quite frankly, due to things like societal trends. We see things, such as needs and preferences and the regulatory agencies aspect at the same point in time.”
To learn more about ag biologicals, Monsanto’s work in the BioAg Alliance with Novozymes, how microbial seed treatment products help farmers use natural resources more efficiently while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and much more, listen to the full interview by clicking here.
NCGA thanks Monsanto for its generous sponsorship of the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference held in St. Louis. This podcast is brought to you through this sponsorship.
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CommonGround is a group of farmers connecting with consumers through conversations about science and research and personal stories about food and misinformation surrounding farming. Supported by the NCGA and state corn organizations.
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The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) is a farmer-led initiative that fosters transformation in agriculture through improved soil health. Administered by NCGA the partnership has more than 220 working farms enrolled in 16 states. SHP’s mission is to utilize science and data to partner with farmers who are adopting conservation agricultural practices that improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the farm.
