News

The Escalating Climate Challenge

· Unabated Warming Trend: Global average temperatures continue to rise, with recent years setting successive records (e.g., 2023 exceeding pre-industrial levels by 1.42°C).

· Pervasive Drought Impact: As one of the most destructive climate hazards, drought has intensified in frequency and scale, affecting over 200 countries/regions globally. Agriculture remains among the most severely impacted sectors, incurring significant socioeconomic losses.

· Core Abiotic Stress--Heat-Drought Compound Stress: The synergistic effects of elevated temperature and water deficit impose severe compound stress on crops. This dual abiotic stress constraint critically undermines global food security by reducing water use efficiency (WUE), photosynthetic capacity, and reproductive success, posing systemic risks to major crops.

FAO Warning: Systemic Crop Damage

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlights the consequences: extreme climate

events triggered a 25%-30% decline of sunflower seed yield in 2024, globally. Heat-drought

abiotic stress induces systemic crop damage, including:

· Impaired root water uptake

· Increased stem lodging risk

· Drastic reduction in capitulum fertility

AXEB's Scientific Response: ZNSO

Aligned with China's 14th Five-Year Plan for National Pesticide Industry Development, AXEB leverages bioscience R&D to address core agricultural challenges. Our breakthrough solution, ZNSO activates crops' intrinsic physiological defense mechanisms against heat- drought stress, embodying our mission to "Harnessing the power of bioscience to craft a sustainable future."

Key Functional Mechanisms of ZNSO:

1. Stimulates Primary Root Growth: Enhances access to deep soil water reserves .
2. Modulates Stomatal Opening&Closing: Reduces water loss via transpiration.
3. Mitigates Leaf Wilting: Preserves turgor during critical developmental stages.
4. Maintains Yield Stability: Ensures consistent grain filling and 1000-kernel weight under abiotic stress.
5. Delays Stress-Induced Senescence

Scientific Validation Highlights

1.Enhanced Root Architecture (Wheat | Field Trial)

• Context: Severe drought conditions in Jiangsu, China
• Intervention: ZNSO applied at jointing stage
• Result: vigorous root development at 15 DAT, improving deep-soil water mining

2. Dynamic Stomatal Regulation (Wheat | Controlled Study)

• Method: In-situ stomatal phenotyping under progressive drought (60%→30% SWC)

• Key Findings:

• faster stomatal closure initiation vs. control during stress
• higher reopening efficiency post-rewatering

3. Stress Resilience in Sunflower (Lab & Field)

• Core Evidence:

• SEM imaging confirmed 70% sustained stomatal closure at 2hr heat-drought stress
• Larger capitulum diameter & consistent grain filling in arid zones

4. Yield Preservation (Wheat | On-farm Demonstration)

• Critical Outcome:

• Maintained active grain filling under extreme drought while controls ceased
• Significant "stay-green" effect enabling higher TKW

Access Further Information

Read the Full AgroPages Feature: AXEB's ZNSO: Sterol-Based Solution to Heat-Drought Stress