OCTOBER 2026  |  SEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE  I  SEED WORLD EUROPE   I   37
PARTNER CONTENT
Can a Thin Red Coat Change 
How a Crop Uses Nitrogen?
yields of a full-rate check, and in one 2025 
European trial it beat the check by 4.3%. 
When applied alongside a full fertiliser 
programme, Arginex boosted yield an 
average of 3.4% and as high as 3.8%. In 
South America, three sites matched the 
full programme’s yield on 40% less nitro­
gen and phosphorus. Silage corn gained 
up to 4.7% whole-plant biomass at 25% 
less nitrogen, with no penalty on germi­
nation.
Wheat is tracking the same curve 
across six sites in Italy, France and 
Germany. Treated wheat yielded an extra 
4.5% on average. When we cut mineral 
nitrogen by 20%, the treated crop still 
yielded essentially even with the full-rate 
control.
What does putting this technology 
on the seed allow a seed company 
to offer its customers?
Åström: We are adding value to the seed 
itself, and it travels with the bag to the 
grower as resilience and insurance writ­
ten into the seed. Arginex is one defined 
molecule rather than something living, so 
it is stable on seed and works alongside 
the treatments already in the recipe. Even 
after rain, the arginine stays in the root 
zone, giving the crop a chance to build 
its root system early. What a plant builds 
in those first weeks is what it meets the 
season with. And because it is on the 
seed, it requires no added pass. That is 
why we call it Root Change: changing the 
system from the ground up.
Arginex is built on decades of 
research. What should seed 
companies know about the science 
and company behind it?
Åström: We built our agriculture the hard 
way up here in Sweden: short seasons, 
tight rules, no tolerance for waste. That 
pressure shapes how we work: start 
with the science and let the product 
follow. Arevo is a spinout of the Swedish 
University of Agricultural Sciences in 
Umeå. Rooted in science and validated in 
the fields is the order we work in: decades 
of research, more than 70 patents, field 
trials, then a product. In July 2026 Corteva 
added Arginex Soy to its European soy­
bean seed treatment portfolio, and that 
partnership now runs across EMEA. 
For a seed company interested 
in exploring nitrogen efficiency 
through seed treatment, what is the 
next step?
Åström: The seed is the earliest point 
at which you can influence a crop, and 
decisions made there carry through the 
season. We’ll have our complete trial set 
— corn, wheat and soy, site by site and 
treatment by treatment — at the Euroseeds 
Congress in October. Stop by, dig into the 
data and see what the results could mean 
for the crops and conditions that matter to 
you. Arginex seed treatment is commer­
cially available for corn today, with wheat 
coming next.
H
ow efficiently a crop accesses and 
uses nitrogen has consequences 
for both crop performance and 
input utilization. Arevo CEO Niklas Åström 
explains what researchers are learning 
about how plants take up different forms 
of nitrogen, and what Arginex, a seed 
treatment designed to deliver nitrogen 
from germination, reveals about yield, 
nitrogen efficiency and early root devel­
opment.
What can putting arginine directly 
on the seed change?
Åström: Every plant needs nitrogen. The 
question is how much work the plant has 
to do to get it. Nitrate can move away 
with water, and the plant has to spend 
energy converting it into a form it can use. 
Arginine behaves differently. It binds to 
soil particles, stays in the root zone and 
can be taken up directly by the plant. 
Put that on the seed and you change 
the starting point. Nitrogen is available 
from germination, in a form the plant can 
use, and the energy it saves can go into 
building longer root hairs and more root 
surface. 
The poorer the soil, the more the 
plant has to gain. Sandy soils, weathered 
soils, ground where nitrate does not stay 
near where you put it: that is where hold­
ing nitrogen in the root zone, in a form the 
plant absorbs directly, pays most.
What have trials demonstrated 
about arginine in corn and wheat 
crops?
Åström: For corn, we have data from 
independent contract research organ­
isations across France, Germany, Italy, 
Spain, Poland and Brazil, across a range 
of soil pH levels and textures, 2024 to 
2025. At 30% less standard nitrogen, 
the seed treatment on its own matched 

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