Nr.3 - JAN / FEB / MAR 2019
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actuality
The circular economy in agriculture

Today we are focused on a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy model: we are moving towards a circular model that drives the innovation and competitiveness associated with environmental impact concerns. And agriculture is no exception!

The fish processing industry - an important economic activity for Portugal - is a generator of large amounts of bio-waste, namely in the case of crustaceans whose shells are an important source of chitin, the most abundant polysaccharide in nature after cellulose.

Chitosan is a chitin derivative, which has attracted attention in several industries for its antimicrobial activity in a broad spectrum of fungi, bacteria and yeasts.

Dedicated to providing a non-polluting solution with zero environmental impact, Asfertglobal, in a circular economics model, performed the upcycling of the crustacean bio-wastes through its integration into the Kiplant VS-04 production process, thus converting residues in products that result in a value higher than that of the recycled product.
Kiplant VS-04: Chitosan in control of nematodes
In order to quantify the efficacy of chitosan present in Kiplant VS-04 against pathogenic nematodes, root applications were applied to potted tomato plants.
Results: The application of Kiplant VS-04 resulted in a decrease in the occurrence of galls, namely at the highest dose tested (20 l / ha) where the reduction was quite considerable when compared to the control (Tukey test, P <0.05) and obtaining an identical effect to the one that resulted from the application of the chemical nematodicide.


There was also a consistent increase in fresh weight of root and shoot of plants treated with Kiplant VS-04.

- Source: Soilvitae (Spin-off of Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa) -
Tomato plants at the end of the trial:
Kiplant VS-04: Chitosan in control of Oidium sp in cucumber
The effectiveness of Kiplant VS-04 applied by fertigation to the control of powdery mildew in the cucumber crop and in comparison to the application of the fungicide azoxystrobin was evaluated.

Results: The Kiplant VS-04 application resulted in a statistically similar efficacy (Student-Newman-Keuls test, P = 0.05) in the % of attacked leaves / plot and in the % of leaf area attacked / plot compared to azoxystrobin.

- Source: Anadiag (Certified company for trials) -
Kiplant VS-04: the Chitosan in the control of the Stemphylium vesicarium in Rocha pear
The efficacy of Kiplant VS-04 in mixture with Eckosil and Kiplant VS-04 was evaluated in combination with Cuperdem in the control of Stemphylium in pear crop.

Results: In the modalities where Kiplant VS-04 + Eckosil and Kiplant VS-04 + Cuperdem were applied, the trees presented a significantly lower number of attacked leaves/plot compared to the control.

- Source: Anadiag (Certified company for trials) -
closer to the customer
JORNADAS de FRUTICULTURA INIAV / ASFERTGLOBAL
Alcobaça (Portugal)
More than 120 producers and technicians from all over the country participated in the presentation and visit to the Asfertglobal biofertilizer testing field at the ENFVN held on the 22nd of February.

At the time Professor Cristina Cruz (researcher at Faculdade de Ciências – Lisbon) the Faculty of Sciences) focused on the use of biofertilizers as a soil enrichment practice, optimizing the use of chemical fertilization by crops and promoting the formation of plant biomass.
Eng. Miguel Leão (INIAV researcher - Alcobaça) presented the results of the 1st year of trials with biofertilizers in the ENFVN orchards.
Eng. Pedro Sebastião (Asfertglobal) presented results from Kiplant VS-04 trials in the control of Stemphylium in Rocha pear in the Alcobaça region.
customer experience
“The quality of the fruit is the most important. Specially in raspberries, one of the most delicate soft fruit that we are growing in Europe.”
We went to hear Marcel de Jong, consultant natural productions at UP’Ness (Benelux).
“As the improvement of fruits quality is mandatory to achieve a long shelf life, in 2017 we started testing Kiplant VS-04 to check the influence in fruits firmness and repeated the tests in 2018.

We tested fruits from two picking dates (at beginning and end of October) and after storage for five days. The fruits treated with Kiplant VS-04 consistently achieved 40% higher firmness and 5% bigger fruits than the control on both picking dates. And after five days of storage we had around 20% firmer fruits.

So at all the three moments of measure the fruit firmness and size was better than the control.”
“Concerning consumer taste experience we achieved good results: higher sugar content and lower pH were got in the fruits treated with Kiplant VS-04 ! And the calcium content in fruit juice was higher on fruits coming from first picking date, too.

Learning from two years’ experience: we should start the applications at early flowering and repeat every two weeks. For raspberries we advise a minimum of four treatments.

This year we are expanding the application with Kiplant VS-04 on more raspberries growers and now also to the south of Europe. Besides raspberries we also started applications on other fruits”
Asfertglobal Portugal
Rua Nova da CEE, Perofilho
2005-008 Várzea, Santarém - Portugal
Tel.:+351 243 779 431 - info@asfertglobal.com
www.asfertglobal.com