Agrochemicals
Sigma Agriscience acquires AM-AG 18th January 2018
Sigma Agriscience has acquired a controlling interest in AM-AG, an international marketer and distributor of agriculture products with operations in Latin America and the U.S.
Sigma Agriscience provides innovative products and solutions to agriculture, nursery, orchard, turf, and landscape markets from all over the US to Mexico, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. AM-AG will operate as a Sigma Agriscience subsidiary under its present name. Significant to the deal is AM-AG’s exclusive distribution rights to a unique granular product line of all-natural, high-analysis secondary and micronutrient plant nutrition.
“We are very excited about this announcement. This is a highly strategic and complementary acquisition with many parts,” said Alan Warren, President and CEO of Sigma Agriscience. “We have a long history of working with AM-AG and this investment strengthens our core competencies and will enable us to deliver unique value for not only organic but conventional growers.”
“Both companies aim to create a smarter way for conventional growers to improve soil health and increase their existing yield and profitability,” said AM-AG partners, Don Barry and J. Robert Gonzales. Branded as “Sigma Biosphere” the go-to-marketing strategy is a program that complements conventional growing practices by supercharging standard NPK fertility with secondary and micronutrient plant nutrition plus biostimulants.
“This technology has very positive implications for agricultural crop production,” said Julian Smith, PhD, lead agronomist of AM-AG.
Modern crop production is reliant upon a multitude of factors and nutrition is a major element of economic yields across a multitude of soil types. More importantly, matching genetics with an increasing attention to detail over and above conventional NPK fertility programs has paid dividends for many producers. Typically, NPK programs are now supplemented with greater attention to secondary and micro-nutrient inclusion.
In many areas, major improvements to plant nutrition have been achieved through complimenting recommended NPK applications with magnesium, sulfur, and calcium. By doing so, maximum NPK efficiency is realized plus applying essential supplemental nutrition for high yield environments. Across many soils in the US, not least those that have been exhausted after years of farming, NPK is essential but simply not enough to sustain economic production. Magnesium, sulfur and calcium (not just liming) supplemental nutrition is vital. Similarly, the impact of essential micronutrients such as zinc, boron, copper and manganese cannot be underestimated.
Sigma Biosphere products utilize a range of soil and crop appropriate combinations of magnesium, calcium, sulfur, and micronutrients in season-long form to augment NPK blends to maximize crop production across a variety of growing environments and crop rotations.
In a significant departure from other supplemental nutrient programs, The Sigma Biosphere program includes a biological package comprising a unique combination of microbes with an outstanding research pedigree. This is not the “bugs in a jug” shotgun approach, rather a carefully researched and selected group of micro-organisms with a proven track record in crop production and soil productivity improvement.
Sigma Biosphere utilizes three specific bug groups, chosen for efficacy and importantly, their competitive ability in a soil environment. Adding a few bugs to a soil environment usually fails as the soil has billions of native microbes, all competing for food. Sigma Biosphere microbials are capable of out-competing native bugs and provide very specific services for crops via the root system. Such advantages include outcompeting pathogens, stimulating root growth and other essential growth functions, not least nutrient availability.