OCTOBER 2024 29 PTERSI ATLI CDI DATEAS Large-scale field trials are the triedand-true way to prove the effectiveness of a new pesticide under real, on-farm conditions, but one of the most challenging parts of managing trials is ensuring the quality and quantity of the data collected. According to Neelan Edbom, the National Sales Manager at ADAMA Canada, “Our Technical Sales Agronomists (TSAs) run the majority of the trials we conduct each year in partnership with our retailers or farmer customers. “Naturally, all this has to happen at the busiest time of the year for our TSAs, and it’s pretty tough to ask them to drop everything and go out and collect field data when they have so many other things to do,” he added. Edbom said that in any given year he estimated that the TSAs are only able to collect about 20 percent of the available data from all the trials they are responsible for due to the time it takes and the territory they have to cover. That sample size is in line with industry averages, and ADAMA is happy with that quantity of data for products they already have on the market. The company has a different standard when it comes to bringing a new product to market, and for that, they bring in a partner that has a whole new way of looking at trials. INTENTional Data Collection In anticipation of launching their new MAXENTIS fungicide in the autumn of 2023, the ADAMA team has partnered up with INTENT to take advantage of their FarmerTrials Network, robust data collection, and software capabilities. “INTENT specializes in field trials, explained Pat Comte, INTENT’s President of Canadian operations. “We are an unbiased company that works with companies like ADAMA to trial their products on the right farms and get the data they need to understand how geographic and environmental variables may impact performance.” TEAM EFFORT TO TACKLE TRIAL DATA ADAMA leverages next-level data quality and quantity to prove product effectiveness. Although this soybean field looks perfect, it is because of all the background work put in by ADAMA to develop new pesticides via trials undertaken on real Canadian farms through INTENT’s FarmerTrials Network. rustycanuck/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
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