5 Minutes With Organic Scientist Ehsan Toosi

Ehsan Toosi is currently the Director of R&D at True Organic Products, an organic fertilizer manufacturer developing products that encourage the soil’s growth of microorganisms. Ehsan is an individual member of OANZ and will be relocating back to New Zealand.

We caught up with him to explore his unique perspective working as a scientist in the organic industry in the USA.

OANZ: Tell us about your journey through organic science and sustainable agriculture.

Ehsan Toosi: I have always been passionate about sustainable agriculture. Planning to pursue my postgraduate degree, I decided to come to New Zealand, mostly due to its reputation for sustainable agriculture, and its unique way of farming. I was lucky to receive a PhD scholarship from the University of Canterbury to study “organic matter chemistry in soils as affected by management”.

Upon graduation and moving to the U.S., in 2010, I conducted multiple research on productivity and environmental aspects of shifting towards less intensive management systems (reduced till, cover cropping, low nutrient input, etc.). By then, I started to appreciate real-world gaps in the field, so decided to join the ag industry.

Since then, my focus has been subjects such as integrated (nutrient-water-pest) management, soil and plant health, processing waste into high-value (organic) farm input, biostimulants, as well as organic regulatory and authenticity. Working with leading growers, regulatory bodies, and researchers, I constantly seek to “find gaps and solutions for them”.

It’s been quite a rewarding journey.

What have been some of the most exciting projects that you have worked on?

As a part of my role, I have been involved in a number of organic product developments, among which was formulating a couple of products, each a blend of beneficial inputs, in pelleted form. Compared to bulk application of raw inputs (e.g. composted manure), the pelleted fertilizers are highly preferred because of the ease of application (e.g. banded/shanked application). Additionally, pellets can be sanitized (as a routine step of processing) to deliver pathogen-free input to the farm, especially for fresh produce crops. Pelleting also allows uniform mixing of different ingredients to deliver a nutritionally balanced blend.

A considerable proportion of arable lands in California comprises low-productive lands with limitations such as light texture, salinity, shallow topsoil, etc. In addition to low-productive (organic), a large portion of conventional lands are also partially to completely exhausted and soil biological activity is almost limited to the living roots. The targeted market for the pipeline was low-productive organic lands, or lands recently converted from conventional to organic.

Soon after being introduced to the market, the products captured interest from a broad range of conventional growers to include in their nutrient management program and bring some level of life back to their lands. Conducting multiple grower’s field trials, we observed that even after a just single application, there is a season-lasting improvement in key soil health indicators. The soil improvements resulted in outcomes that are of grower’s primary interest, such as a more extended and uniform supply of N (less leaching potential), higher efficacy of native soil phosphorus, early growth vigor (especially when under stress conditions), and improved shelf-life (berries and leafy greens).

We have seen synergistic effects of beneficial inputs when they are blended in the right way. I will be sharing part of the results in the coming American Society of Agronomy annual meeting.

1. Developing Biostimulants

Biostimulants have gained much interest in the past decade, especially for high-value crops. Common groups are seaweed or humic extracts, and protein hydrolysates, but emerging products, especially marine-based, are being developed for application in organic farming.

I have spent time exploring not only on processing certain biostimulants and translating their chemistry to crop response, but specifically on the understanding value of them from a grower’s standpoint and conditions under which application of these materials is profitable. We know that crop response varies depending on the type/quality of biostimulants and cropping conditions. In addition, a response is more likely when the crop is under stress, which is to some degree quite common in case of high-value crops.

We have seen when properly formulated and applied, biostimulant can be of agronomic value in conditions such as salinity and Boron toxicity, and specifically deficiency of micronutrients.

Biostimulants can be also valuable inputs during the early transition period when growers transition from conventional to organic. This is a common case where biological fertility of the soil is inadequate to rely only on organic fertilizers. It is because organic inputs must go through the soil biological loop to properly decompose and supply the plant nutritional need.

In our biostimulant platform, an area of focus is developing organically approved products to reduce the adverse effect of early heat / chill on crops such as almond, avocado, apple, and specifically vegetables in different regions in California. Lack of standardization is a major issue in the biostimulant market and California Department of Food & Agriculture has recently started regulating biostimulants. I have been serving as a board member in the Biostimulant Advisory Subcommittee for the department since its start in 2019.

2. Concerns with Organic Cropping

A major point of concern in organic cropping is violation of organic integrity. This issue harms growers who comply and operate based on organic regulations, i.e. majority of the growers.

In organic cropping, management of nutrients particularly nitrogen (N) is much more difficult than conventional farming. The difficulty is not only supply of N, but more importantly is matching the pattern of N release from the fertilizer with N uptake by the crop (to lower N leaching).

Consequently, partial supply of N through synthetic sources is a common case in organic violation. On of current difficulties is to narrow the border at which the violation is evident, and that border line varies crop to crop.

This is a new direction in organic research, and it demands combining analytical (mostly isotopic) techniques, along with advanced statistical methods to compellingly conclude a violation case.

I have been working with UC Davis researchers to assess the status of organic fertilizers and products in the California market, especially those imported from other countries, and verify sources of violation. Part of the results were published last year, and a report is under publication. In addition to agronomic fraud (e.g. synthetic fertilizer/pesticides), a coming direction in fraud detection is misleading the origin country for an organic product.

Some other gaps in organic cropping that I can think of with broad relevance are: developing repellents for pest control, developing slow-release fertilizers, developing nutrient programs for specific crops (e.g. almond, grape, avocado), nutrient management using fully soluble organic fertilizers in farms under pressurized irrigation, and using biological measures and sensors for predicting soil capacity to deliver nutrients in organic systems.

Are there areas in your research that you think more countries like New Zealand need to undertake?

Principles, challenges and to some extent opportunities for organic farming are similar across geographies. Agronomic practices, however, vary in different systems. To be profitable in long run, organic cropping, when practiced at large acreage, demands a high level of technicality especially in terms of agronomic and regulatory aspects. For some reason, the technicality aspect is often overlooked, in part because large-scale organic production is still new.

What role do you hope organic agriculture will play in New Zealand?

There has been a rapid global growth in organic industry. New Zealand has some advantages in terms of resources and the reputation in the market. Although the domestic market is limited, the international demand has created a great opportunity for the country to make a larger contribution to the global organic market share.

On the other hand, organic cropping goes beyond improved food quality; rather it is an approach to more sustainably manage resources and deliver multiple benefits e.g. soil carbon build up and lowering nutrient/water/biodiversity losses.

There have been debates to consider all these aspects of organic farming and incentivize growers accordingly. This has already started to be implemented in California. I believe this is the way farmers will be regulated/incentivized in New Zealand, not too far from now.

What has inspired you to return to New Zealand?

I have always been interested in returning to New Zealand. Over the past few years, I have been observing the growing trend in horticultural and organic sections in the country. There are some advantages and resources that create unique opportunities for New Zealand, especially given the globally growing demand for organic products. I also have family members in the country. These have motivated me to plan for coming back to New Zealand and play a role in the crop production sector.

OANZ5 October 2020