Agriculture plays a crucial role in ensuring food security and nutrition worldwide. The quality traits of crops are essential for their marketability, consumer acceptance, and overall nutritional value. Ensuring high-quality crops in agriculture, particularly for fruits, vegetables, and potatoes, involves overcoming several challenges. These challenges span from pre-harvest to post-harvest stages and can significantly impact the marketability and nutritional value of the produce.
In the following article we will present the solutions that Biostimulation 360 can bring to the growers to overcome the challenges and enhance quality and thus, the profitability of their crops.
Quality Traits in Agriculture
The quality of crops is determined by several physical, chemical, and biological traits. These traits influence the usability of the crops for food, feed, industrial applications, and seed production.
1. Internal and external Quality parameters
There are various parameters that define the quality of agricultural production, which can be summarized into two main groups. External parameters include caliber/shape, homogeneity, color/pigments, and firmness/cracking. Internal parameters encompass flavor, texture, and Brix grade. These parameters collectively determine the overall quality and marketability of agricultural products.
Size, homogeneity and weight: Consumers and processors prefer uniform sizes and weights for ease of packaging and processing.
Colour and Appearance: Bright, attractive colours indicate freshness and high nutritional value. For instance, vibrant red tomatoes and deep green leafy vegetables are preferred.
Brix grade: In many crops, the Brix grade is the key parameter that determines the quality level of the produce and significantly enhances its commercial value. This measurement, which indicates the sugar content in fruits and vegetables, is crucial for assessing sweetness and overall flavor, making it a vital factor in agricultural production.
Texture and Firmness: Crops like fruits and vegetables should have an appropriate firmness to withstand transport and storage.
To help our growers reach the desired quality traits for their crops, Biostimulation 360 introduces Quikon, the first Rovensa Next biostimulant, and one of the first in the market, to receive the CE mark under this new regulation. Quikon is a microbial extract ultraefficient quality promoter biostimulant able to increase the sugar and nutrient movement, photosynthesis and plant cell wall organisation in plant with the ability to increase fruit quality in terms of size, weight, and sugar content.
Want to know more about Quikon, check ( https://www.rovensanext.com/en/news/press-releases/a-new-step-towards-a-more-sustainable-agriculture-produce-rovensa-nexts-biimore-receives-additional-crops-approval-under-eu-fertilising-products-regulation/ )
We know it works: More than 61 trials showing positive results in quality in tree vegetable and potato crops
In all crops, Potassium is paramount in yield and quality. Especially for the brix, starch levels, potassium will be the main factor in increasing these chemical traits. Due to the challenges related to climate, such as abiotic stress, plant low energy levels due to closing the yearly cycle, Biostimulation 360 developed Amifol K, our highly absorbable and safe Potassium solution for fruit swell and quality. Amifol K is able to be absorbed even in challenging conditions such as low humidity, high temperatures and bringing a highly efficient nutrient, capable of increasing quality in all crops.
Conclusion
The quality traits in agriculture determine the usability and marketability of crops, influencing global food security and economic sustainability. However, crop production faces numerous challenges, including environmental factors, pest and disease outbreaks, technological limitations, and socio-economic constraints. Addressing these challenges requires a combination of scientific innovation, policy support, and sustainable farming practices. By improving crop quality and overcoming production barriers, Rovensa Next Biostimulation strategy can continue to offer high quality yields to the growing global population while ensuring economic stability for farmers worldwide.
