CREDIT INFORMATION

This course is accredited for CE units/hours by:

• Certified Crop Advisers (1 CEU Nutrient Management)
• Florida Department of Agriculture (1 CEU Category 482 & 487 General Standards/Core)
• Georgia Department of Agriculture (Category: Commercial 21, 1 Hour)
• Hawaii Department of Agriculture (1 CEU, Private, Commercial 1a, 3, 10)
• West Virginia Department of Agriculture (2 credits in Categories 1, 11, 12, and PA)

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Katja Hora is Research Manager of Specialty Plant Nutrition at IFA member SQM. Dr. Hora joined SQM’s global development team in 2014 to gather and exchange knowledge on potassium nitrate for fertigation, foliar, and field applications. She works on programs including potassium nitrate for maximum crop yield and quality - compared to sulphate or chloride containing K-sources - to grow crops with less water, prevent salinity stress and optimizing nitrate to ammonium ratios. Dr. Hora has a PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Amsterdam.

Sponsor Information

SQM, a worldwide company based in Chile and founded in 1968, has a strong global presence in Specialty Plant Nutrition, being committed not only to the field, but also to add value to your business and crops through our extensive agronomic expertise. At its plants in northern Chile, SQM processes two precious natural resources: caliche ore and salt brines; these provide raw materials for SQM's broad product portfolio and are at the heart of an integrated and flexible production process which enables SQM to obtain at the same time different and complementary natural products, including nitrate derivatives.

Iodine is present everywhere, but in only small quantities. Most agricultural top soils and irrigation water contain very low concentrations, and it is often not available for plant uptake. A deficiency of iodine in plants is predicted to cause yield losses, similar to deficiency of any other plant nutrient. These are conclusions based on recent scientific research supported by SQM, a company with a long history in providing the world with iodine and fertilisers from the Atacama desert in Chile, for the benefit of human development. For optimal crop production iodine should be supplied to crops at the right dosage.  Co-application of iodine with specialty plant nutrition makes it easy for the farmers to ensure the right amount of iodine in the nutrient solution, and prevents excess uptake of iodine in leaves or fruits. This is demonstrated in this course by a number of trials and data based on phenotyping, genomics and proteomics studies.