Abiotic stress is one of agriculture’s most significant and complex challenges, influencing crop productivity and food security worldwide. Growers are increasingly faced with extreme weather events, unpredictable rainfall patterns, saline soils, and heatwaves, all intensified by climate change. Understanding and effectively managing abiotic stress is now crucial to ensuring stable yields and sustainable agricultural practices.
Understanding Abiotic Stress
Abiotic stresses are non-living environmental factors that can adversely affect plant growth, development, and productivity. Unlike biotic stresses, caused by living organisms such as pests or diseases, abiotic stresses include drought, salinity, temperature extremes (both heat and cold). These stressors can severely limit agricultural productivity, causing substantial economic losses.
In practical terms, abiotic stress restricts a plant’s natural ability to absorb water and nutrients, disrupts metabolic processes, and ultimately reduces crop yields. With an ever-growing global population and the pressure on agricultural systems to produce more food sustainably, effectively managing abiotic stress is no longer optional but imperative.
Why Traditional Methods Fall Short
Historically, farmers have responded to abiotic stress through conventional irrigation practices, fertiliser applications, and selecting crops with inherent resistance. However, these traditional methods have considerable limitations. Intensive irrigation can lead to salinity buildup in soils, while heavy fertiliser use is expensive, contributes to environmental pollution, and can become ineffective under stress conditions.
Furthermore, genetic crop selection is beneficial but limited, as developing stress-resistant varieties through breeding programmes can be time-consuming and costly. Thus, there’s an urgent need for innovative, immediate, and practical solutions that enhance plant resilience directly.
Biostimulants: A Revolutionary Approach
In recent years, biostimulants have emerged as a powerful tool to mitigate abiotic stress. Derived primarily from natural substances, biostimulants enhance plant resilience, improve nutrient use efficiency, and promote healthier growth under adverse conditions. One of the most effective natural sources for biostimulants is the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum.
At Brandon Bioscience, extensive research has led to the development of several groundbreaking biostimulants such as BARRAMAR®, BLOCSAL®, ISKAMAR®, PSI-362, and MARTELLO®, all utilising precision extraction processes from Ascophyllum nodosum to unlock bioactives.
Combatting Drought Stress
Drought stress severely hampers crop productivity by causing dehydration, metabolic disruptions, and reduced plant vigour. Brandon Bioscience’s product ISKAMAR® offers a scientifically validated solution by significantly enhancing water use efficiency in crops. This innovative biostimulant, derived from marine carbohydrates enriched with calcium and organic acids, optimises plant water uptake and retention under water-deficit conditions.
Field trials demonstrated that potato plants treated with ISKAMAR® maintained higher relative water content (RWC), leading to a 16.1% yield increase under drought conditions compared to untreated crops. This precision-engineered biostimulant reduces growers’ dependency on water resources, particularly valuable in arid and semi-arid regions.
Tackling Salinity Stress
Salinity stress is another formidable challenge affecting approximately 20% of global agricultural land. Excessive salt accumulation impairs nutrient uptake, disrupts osmotic balance, and significantly reduces yields. BLOCSAL®, another powerful biostimulant from Brandon Bioscience, is specifically engineered to combat salinity stress through its unique formulation combining Ascophyllum nodosum and protein hydrolysates.
Research reveals BLOCSAL® increases osmotic stress tolerance, reduces sodium uptake, and promotes higher potassium accumulation. Transcriptome analysis indicated that critical salinity tolerance genes (SOS1, HKT1, and NHX1) were significantly upregulated in treated tomato plants. These mechanisms resulted in a remarkable 48% yield increase under saline conditions, demonstrating BLOCSAL®’s effectiveness as a viable solution for growers facing saline water challenges.
Addressing Heat Stress During Fruit Set
Heatwaves have become more frequent and severe, directly impacting the reproductive stages of crops, particularly during fruit set. Brandon Bioscience’s MARTELLO® addresses this issue effectively. This biostimulant, leveraging precision extraction from Ascophyllum nodosum, significantly enhances heat stress tolerance.
Trials conducted on tomato plants exposed to moderate heat stress showed MARTELLO® notably increased flower number, pollen viability, and fruit set, achieving an impressive 86% yield increase compared to untreated controls. MARTELLO® optimises physiological processes by maintaining photosynthetic efficiency, preserving carbohydrate levels, and significantly boosting the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs).
Enhancing Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE)
Excessive nitrogen use is economically and environmentally unsustainable. Brandon Bioscience’s PSI®362 precision biostimulant addresses this critical challenge by enhancing nitrogen uptake and utilisation. Field studies on wheat and barley have demonstrated PSI®362’s ability to maintain or even increase yields with 25% reduced nitrogen inputs.
The biostimulant works by stimulating root growth, improving nitrate uptake, and enhancing expression of genes related to nitrogen assimilation. PSI®362 treatment resulted in up to a 66% biomass increase in wheat seedlings and improved NUE by up to 33% in barley, enabling growers to significantly reduce nitrogen fertiliser use without sacrificing crop performance.
Protecting Yield Through Pod Shatter Resistance
Pod shattering in crops like oilseed rape and soybean can lead to significant yield losses. SEALICIT®, another Brandon Bioscience innovation, addresses this problem by enhancing pod shatter resistance through precise modulation of gene expression.
SEALICIT® downregulates critical genes responsible for pod opening, significantly reducing seed loss and increasing crop yield by up to 18% in soybean trials. The biostimulant strengthens pod structures by increasing lignin content, providing growers with a practical solution for maintaining yield stability and improving harvest efficiency.
Comprehensive Solutions for Modern Agriculture
Brandon Bioscience’s suite of biostimulants represents a leap forward in agricultural management practices. By directly enhancing plants’ innate resilience to abiotic stress factors, these products offer farmers a scientifically validated, sustainable, and economically viable alternative to traditional methods.
Biostimulants are increasingly recognised as essential tools within integrated crop management strategies, complementing existing agricultural practices to ensure robust and sustainable crop production.
The Way Forward
In an era marked by climatic unpredictability, Brandon Bioscience continues to pioneer biostimulant technologies that effectively address the multifaceted challenges of abiotic stress. The ongoing commitment to research and development ensures that growers have access to solutions that enhance crop resilience, improve nutrient use efficiency, and safeguard yields in challenging environments.
For agronomists, growers, and distributors seeking practical, sustainable, and proven solutions, Brandon Bioscience’s biostimulants offer the opportunity not only to overcome abiotic stress but also to drive agriculture towards a more resilient and productive future.
Abiotic stress is inevitable, but with innovative solutions and strategic interventions, the adverse impacts can be significantly mitigated, ensuring food security, farmer profitability, and environmental sustainability for generations to come.
