Creating Credibility: New Biostimulant Certification Program
The biostimulant market is crowded and growing rapidly. I understand that the biostimulant market must look a little like the Wild West to growers who are wondering if any of these new products can improve their farm’s bottom line. I know that I am confused. Which products should our team represent? How do they work? When do they work? What problem is that specific product able to solve?
I am pleased to tell you about a new certification initiative that will help us sort through the biostimulant market confusion. During The Fertilizer Institute’s (TFI) recent InfoAg Conference, I heard more about the Certified Biostimulant Program, a voluntary, evidence-based initiative that will provide transparency into which individual products meet industry-recognized standards for efficacy, safety and composition. The program is based on the United States Biostimulant Industry Guidelines, which provides criteria for the documentation and evidence needed for biostimulant companies to support their product’s effectiveness.
Today, makers of biostimulants must register their product as either a fertilizer, soil amendment, beneficial substance or inoculum with the Department of Agriculture in every state they intend to sell the product. Registering a product under state fertilizer regulations, however, requires little to no data or information from the manufacturer about a product’s effectiveness, formulation or safety.
In the absence of unified state or federal requirements for biostimulants, I am so pleased that the fertilizer industry has developed a system that will allow Stutsmans to provide you with unbiased and sound product recommendations. The use of these industry-certified products will strengthen the credibility of individual biostimulant products on the market and, by extension, biostimulants as a whole.
Program Features and Benefits
The Certified Biostimulant Program will have an online portal with a list of certified products. This website will include product and company contact information; product category (i.e., one of the five product types identified in the standard); certification expiration date; certification identification (ID) number; a link to the product label; label claims; Safety Data Sheets; and the full efficacy workbook with confidential business information redacted. Proof of conformance must be documented with a quality assurance manual (QAM). The manual must address the efficacy, composition and safety of the applicant’s product. Products that are approved will have a Certified Biostimulant label.
This program provides several benefits for all of us. It helps the Stutsman agronomy team assess the sea of biostimulant companies and select individual products to do our own field trials on. In turn, we can recommend products more comfortably to you. Additionally, our customers can have confidence in product compliance with an industry program seal and ultimately make better-informed decisions about which products to use on their fields.
What do you think? Does a program like this also help you wade through the options? Will it impact your decision-making when it comes to biostimulants?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
Mark Stutsman | COO