Clariant has announced that it has invested in a state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) greenhouse to step up its support for tackling current and future agricultural challenges.
The new greenhouse at Clariant Innovation Center (CIC) is set to take the company’s crop solutions product development support to a new level. It will provide a real life testing source for novel crop protection and management, as well as yield enhancement solutions.
The 400 m2 greenhouse offers smart emulation of environmental conditions, such as humidity, light, rainfall and temperature, creating a proper climate for testing to supplement Clariant's existing laboratory testing facilities at the CIC.
Its aim is to reduce development time and speed-to-market for advances in the niche growth areas of plant growth regulators, foliar fertilizers and bio-herbicides. These have been identified as focus areas to Clariant for successfully addressing current customer-specific needs and future global food demands.
"The new crop solutions greenhouse creates the perfect environment for fostering joint development in the areas we see as having most potential for delivering sustainable crop protection and, in the bigger picture, addressing the world's increasing nutrition requirements," said Britta Fünfstück, Member of Clariant's Executive Committee.
Peter Baur, Head of Clariant's Crop Solutions Competence Center, added: "The crop solutions team is delighted to now have the unique, in-house opportunity to create new concepts for screening to complement our already extensive laboratory application tests. We are looking forward to developing novel product innovations for crop solutions and yield enhancement including open innovation collaborations with our customers."