Agri-Food Canada Funds Innovotech Seed Treatment

Posted by Matt Hopkins|30 June 2010

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada — Biofilm product developer Innovotech Inc. has secured funding of more than $900,000 from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for field trials of Agress, according to a company press release. Agress is a high oxidation state silver compound seed treatment and plant spray that kills both bacterial and fungal pathogens while being non-toxic to plants and animals. When applied to seed surfaces, the company says Agress provides up to 100% reduction of microbes with a low risk of resistance.

The repayable funding, administered through the Agriculture and Food Council in Alberta, is to cover two years of field trials and support regulatory approval submissions. Innovotech has already filed for regulatory approval of Agress with the Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The goal of the field trials is to expand Agress usage from pulse crops (dry beans, dry peas, lentils, chickpeas) and soybeans to high value crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes. Agress has been proven effective in greenhouse trials against halo blight (Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola), brown spot (P. syringae pv. syringae), common blight (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. phaseoli), bacterial wilt (Curtobacterium flaccumfacines pv. flaccumfaciens), bacterial blight (P. syringae pv. pisi), anthracnose (Colletotrichum lindemuthianum and C. pisi), and pink seed (Erwinia rhapontici) in dry beans and field peas. It is also effective in soybeans against bacterial blight (P. savastonoi pv. glycines), bacterial pustule (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. glycines), and anthracnose (C. truncatum) — as well as bacterial leaf spot (P. andropogonis) in chickpeas and anthracnose in lentils.
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