Since the entry into force of the Fertilising Products Regulation – FPR – (Reg. EU 2019/1009), biostimulants must meet strict efficacy criteria linked to clearly defined claims:
– Improved nutrient use efficiency;
– Increased resistance to abiotic stress;
– Improved crop quality;
– Improved availability of nutrients confined in the soil or rhizosphere.
An offer in line with regulatory requirements
STAPHYT designs tailor-made protocols that comply with the 5 FPR harmonized standards:
- EN 17700-1: General principles
- EN 17700-2: Nutrient use efficiency
- EN 17700-3: Tolerance to abiotic stress
- EN 17700-4: Determination of quality characteristics
- EN 17700-5: availability of nutrients confined to soil and rhizosphere
The biostimulant development ecosystem agrees that it is not always easy to correlate field studies and claimed effects.
Our aim is therefore to transform regulatory requirements into relevant, supportive field trials for the innovative companies to rapidly get their EU-type examination certificate and produce their EU declaration of conformity.
What makes STAPHYT the right partner?
STAPHYT has a large testing network, with more than 59 testing stations in 15 countries, as well as a wide range of agro-climatic conditions, an asset for testing products in environments representative of their future use.
Key assets:
Specific soils: cadmium-rich soils in Poland, high salinity in Italy or Spain, extreme pH levels, etc.
Water stress: tests under controlled conditions at our laboratory in Martillac, tunnel tests in the Mediterranean zone, or field tests in areas naturally subject to drought. In each case, positive and negative controls can be included.
Our technicians, working closely with farmers, adjust experimental set-ups (microplots, strips, customized irrigation / fertilization) to guarantee realistic and robust conditions. The envirotyping of the selected plots helps to get criteria for understanding explaining the behaviour of the tested technology.
As it is critical to maximise chances to get assessments showing significant differences with the untreated in each trial setup, our technical managers and technicians have access to a diversity of assessment tools, enabling them to follow chlorophyll and other pigments contents, to assess NDVI at the human level as well as through zenithal drone pictures.
Thanks to the synergy between our departments, STAPHYT can design protocols adapted to the various claims set out in the PFC 6 from the FPR, and to identify the most relevant assessments.
Building on seed testing experience
Our experience in seed varieties trials enables us to valorize proven variety evaluation criteria (stay green, flowering, vigor at the start of the cycle, etc.), which are useful for measuring the effects of biostimulants.
It also enables us to use multi-factorial systems with intra-cell co-culture or co-cultivar.
Organoleptic assessment is a non-negligible quality trait
Our processing service enables us to set up specific trials to measure the impact of biostimulants on the organoleptic quality of harvested product (taste, texture, preservation, etc.). These parameters, in addition to yield and harvest quality, can be good assets to discriminate treatments.
Trials programs are defined for the purpose of reaching the EU mark
Our comprehensive regulatory support is designed to secure your submissions.
Our regulatory team supports you from the strategy definition up to documentation submission, in liaison with national authorities and/or FPR notified bodies. Synergic management of the trials between field and regulatory experts will help you maximise the number of supportive trials and review the affordable claims based on your data package.
Alone we go fast, but well surrounded we go further. Just like our field team shares good practices and benefits from the experience of other Staphyt departments. Staphyt as a whole is keeping its eyes wide open and is part of a complete innovative ecosystem.
STAPHYT is also committed to inter-professional dynamics, through partnerships such as AFAIA, the Grand Défi for Biocontrole and Biostimulation for Agroecology (managed by association ABBA) in France and DIGIBiocontrol in Belgium.
By participating in these multi-stakeholder platforms, we stay at the heart of regulatory and scientific developments, strengthen our expertise in the field and develop strategic collaborations. Our commitment to developing sustainable solutions has also led us to participate in associations of biocontrol product manufacturers and seed producer projects such as Plant Alliance. This multi-level involvement is a good way of pooling experience and maximising knowledge of best practice.
Our in-depth knowledge of FPR requirements guarantees an optimized development strategy.
Contact us to discuss how we can support your projects! Reach out to us at contact@staphyt.com
