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ClearfieldŽ Production System |
Protecting crops and the environment
Using the Clearfield Production System farmers can protect crops such as corn, wheat or rice from weeds for the entire growing season. The system is a combination of herbicides and seeds that are tolerant to these herbicides. The seeds are obtained using traditional breeding methods and not using genetic engineering. The herbicide acts when it comes into direct contact with weeds and a single application prevents weeds from germinating again throughout the entire growing season. With the Clearfield Production System, BASF improves its competitiveness in the market for herbicide-tolerant systems - one of the fastest growing segments of the agricultural market.
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Conventional corn is not tolerant to herbicides based on imidazolinones. If farmers use these herbicides to combat weeds, then they kill both the weeds and the crop plants (top photo).
If farmers plant ClearfieldŽ seeds and then use an imidazolinone herbicide, then only the weeds are killed and the corn can grow freely (bottom photo).
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The Clearfield Production System includes herbicides based on imidazolinones, which have been on the market for more than 10 years. These active ingredients are used primarily in soybeans, peanuts and other legumes, since these crops are naturally tolerant to these herbicides. However, imidazolinones also act against many other weeds and crops by specifically influencing an important enzyme that is responsible for the synthesis of a complex amino acid.
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Weeds can acquire resistance to herbicides as a result of natural mutations. This property of plants is used by BASF researchers to produce seeds that are tolerant to imidazolinones. Scientists trigger gene mutations in cultivated plants and cross these plants with one another several times. By using these traditional breeding methods, researchers obtain daughter generations with a variety of characteristics. In some plants, the mutations result in an alteration of the very enzyme against which the imidazolinones act and the plant is therefore resistant to the herbicide.
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The first Clearfield Production System was launched in the United States in 1992 for corn. New Clearfield seed lines are being developed and sold in worldwide partnerships with more than 100 seed companies, in particular for wheat, rice, sunflower and canola. The group of imidazolinones consists of six active ingredients. As a result, BASF can offer custom-designed products that best control typical weeds in a particular crop or region. In the coming years, BASF will launch several Clearfield systems and expects them to yield annual sales of approximately $300 million.
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Innovation Award winners
Dr. Barnett Bernstein,
Bill Dunham,
Scott Gaddis,
Kaye Iftner,
Dwight More,
Dr. Robert Morrison
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