South Africa: Natural Crop Booster Sees Significant Yield Gain in Key Crops
In April 2023, Custom Chemistry’s EL-I tech was hailed as the biggest agricultural breakthrough in 70 years. Sixteen months later, and with more than 3,000 hectares’ worth of real-world trials across both wet and dry years complete, the stats leave no doubt that this technology is one of the biggest game-changers that the industry has seen in decades.
As the pursuit of sustainable nitrogen sources in agriculture and horticulture continues, Custom Chemistry developed EL-I tech — a groundbreaking technology harnesses the power of a unique and novel combination of microbial symbiosis to fixate nitrogen, and also to unlock essential nutrients like potassium and phosphorus for plants.
EL-I tech has proven to be a sustainable alternative that either completely replaces or powerfully supplements chemical fertilizers. Its remarkable benefits include dramatically increased yields, resulting in reduced input costs and increased profits.
By promoting nutrient availability through natural means and reducing reliance on chemical fertilizers, EL-I tech also revolutionizes sustainability and contributes to a healthier ecosystem.
What the real-world numbers of actual, non-extrapolated data say:
- Four trials were conducted on three dryland maize farms across different South African provinces during the 2022/2023 summer planting season. The post-harvest result is a mammoth average profit gain of 75%
- Additionally, two trials were conducted on a dryland sunflower farm in the North-West province of South Africa during the same period. The post-harvest result is an average profit gain of 54%.
- A trial on an orchard of 6-year-old Leanri citrus trees – comparing a control of plants treated by standard farm practices alone to a group treaded by standard practices, EL-I tech and sParK, showed a groundbreaking 35% increase in average yield per tree. A separate trial, conducted on two blocks of Nadorcott trees, produced 37,4% and 38% increases respectively in yield per tree.
- Potatoes were also on the list, with an 8-week analysis on Mondial potatoes, showing a substantial 13.2% increase in yield per hectare in plants treated with EL-I tech and sParK drip irrigation PLUS standard farm practices, compared to plants treated with standard farm practices alone.
- With a trial on dryland wheat, nitrogen levels in plants treated with EL-I tech alone, without any fertilizer, outperformed the control block – treated by standard farm practices – by 6.5%.
- In a trial conducted on hydroponically cultivated blueberries – done to investigate the unique ability of EL-I tech to fix nitrogen – it was evident that EL-I tech not only satisfied 100% of the nitrogen needs of the plant, but also fixed excess nitrogen in the substrate.
In the EL-I tech treated blocks, the teams noticed a significant difference in nitrogen availability, with 43.8% higher ammonia content in the Drain than in the Drip – indicating that more ammonia was produced than the sum of ammonia applied and ammonia consumed.
* Thoroughly reviewed scientific reports and methodologies are available on request
Gerhard Vermaak (Bsc, pr.Sci.Nat), MD of Custom Chemistry, says, “We had a massive amount of faith in EL-I tech™ during the experimental phase, and small-scale results were encouraging, but when we applied it to real-world farms, various real-world weather conditions and to a variety of crops on a large scale, we were blown away by the results.
“One practical test after the other – in any climate, across wet and dry seasons – EL-I tech keeps proving itself as THE technology that no farmer – from the subsistence farmer to the large commercial farmer, the exporter and the multinational with millions of hectares of farmland, can be without. It is an absolute game-changer for farmers and consumers’ pockets, food security and the environment. Production is stepping up exponentially, and so is the development of other ground-breaking technologies. We are massively excited about the future.”
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