Spain-Alltech Crop Science has acquired a Spain-based agri-food research and development expert, Ideagro, in a move to extend a world-leading understanding of the interface between soil, crop, animal, and human health to the global market.
Founded in 2011, Ideagro specializes in the development and evaluation of bio fungicides, biobactericides, easily assimilated fertilizers, screening of new varieties, and use of microorganisms in agriculture, thereby providing solutions in the field of the agro-food sector.
Alltech Crop Science on the other hand is a privately-held animal health and nutrition company with 25 years as a global leader in the application of microbial fermentation and nutrigenomic research to enhance yields, reduce stress, and improve health in crops.
According to the press, this partnership joins the two platforms to enhance soil and crop research and elevate the biological and additional microorganism-based offerings for Alltech Crop Science customers across the globe.
Andy Thomas, CEO of Alltech Crop Science, said that Ideagro is a partner who shares their vision and significantly scales the company’s research capabilities.
“This is the strengthening of a longstanding partnership. We have worked closely with the Ideagro team of 20 scientists since their founding 11 years ago.”
While focusing on soil, Ideagro comes in handy to provide its expertise in developing beneficial organisms for soil aids the growth of crops, reduces the impact of chemical inputs, and helps plants to resist biotic and abiotic stress.
Moreover, Ideagro’s analytical capabilities, with special emphasis on in-vitro research, phytopathology, soil dynamics, and microorganisms will further enable growers to identify microorganisms and quantify enzymatic activity in the soil.
According to Pedro Palazón, CEO of Ideagro, the company will also expand its technical capability globally.
“We are facing a great growth opportunity for Ideagro because we are going to have better means and more technological capacity to develop our research, which will now have a global projection,” he said.
Focus on agricultural microorganisms
The partnership will greatly benefit from Ideagro’s three laboratories which are fully equipped with the latest technologies to focus on nutraceuticals, phytopathology, research and development, and molecular biology.
The lab will carry out Precise diagnoses, identification, and semi-quantification of more than 290 microorganisms at the species level in different crops.
It also has capabilities to offer molecular identification of microorganisms as well as genetic characterization of specific strains and determination of pathotypes of a pathogen.
additionally, the lab can analyze nematodes and design specific probes for specific microorganisms as well as mycotoxins analysis.
With more than 15,000 mycotoxin analyses carried out to date, Ideagro has the capability to identify and quantify the risks of aflatoxin B1, fumonisins, zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol trichothecenes and T2 toxin which are common in grains and cereals.
To date, Ideagro company has researched more than 90 different crops and performed more than 10,000 physicochemical and biological analyses. This has led to the development of new agricultural strategies based on microorganisms.
Ideagro is accredited by MAPAMA (EOR 82/13) and has ISO 9001:2015 certification. In June 2021, it was named a Reference Regional Laboratory by GLOSOLAN, the Global Soil Laboratory division of the FAO.
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