Old Roadside advertisements: Agriculture

Cañar (Ecuador); 16.VII.1992

PATAFOL® contra la lancha

Lancha (or Tizón tardio) is Late blight: a serious disease of potato and tomato caused by the fungus Phytopthora infestans. The word is also used for Early blight (or Tizón temprano) caused by the fungus Alternaria solani.

Blight is the cause of probably the largest use of agrochemicals.

STIMUFOL® + LIBREL® BMX
abonadura super completa

abonadura = fertilizer

Cañar (Ecuador); 16.VII.1992

TOUCHDOWN® contra el Kikuyo

Kikuyo (Pennisetum clandestinum) is a grass, native from Ethiopia, and introduced in the Andes at the beginning of the 20th century.
First it was imported as an ornamental plant and as cattle food. Today it is a pest-species invading farmlands (nitrogen lover).

That's how it goes: one half of the community fights the grass, the others apply fertilizers in favour of their Holstein breed. A clear win-win situation.

Mexico; V.2004;
pict. M. Chartier

El mejor matazacate
Garraquat Super 25
Paraquat
or
The best weedkiller

Metz (France); 11.VI.2014;
pict. A. Dury

Cobra
Le brouillard qui extermine mites • moustiques • punaises • cafards.
or
The mist exterminating mites • mosquitos • bugs • cockroaches

Other adverts for the product continue with A non toxic product with a very pleasing perfume and sometimes kind of a genie is shown strangling the insect.

Cobra was based on pyrethrum and produced by the company A.Caubet & Fils based in Marseille.

Alvito (Alentejo, Portugal);
IV.1998; pict. A. Guët.

adubai com Nitrato do Chile

Banyoles (Catalunya, Spain);
VII.1999; pict. M. Tailly

Piensos Ganador
or fodder winner

Don't miss the quality seal behind the G.

Astorga (Spain);
VII.1999

Piensos (= fodder) Biona

Surely no typographic highlight. The lettering has everything of a head-to-tail collision.

Ourense (Spain); VII.1999

Coren — Alimentos de Gallicia

The Co-operative society of Orense stems from the 1960s when Sr. Franqueira won some farmers for his idea that the only way to become profitable was by working together.
Franqueira had a tough time convincing the conservative lot in this backward province. But he succeeded and Coren now stands for more than 6000 families.

Read more about the history at the company's website (Spanish, latest check: IV.2016).

Sariñena (Spain); VII.1999

Alimentos PORTA

Note the double use of the T.

Like I wrote in the introduction: nothing beats waterproof paint.
It doesn't rain that much in Sariñena, but clearly enough to reveal the inferior quality of the paint.

Orthez (France 64); VII.1999; pict A. Guët

LE PAYSAN (=peasant)

The text says
Les Célèbres Graines en Sachet
or The Famous Seeds in Sachets

Leyrac (Gers, France); V.2000; pict A. Guët

Tous Produits du Sol
ENGRAIS
Complexes - Granules
PEC
Dans tous les sols
Pour toutes cultures
Engrais Pec ...
... Pas D'Échec

All Products from the Earth
FERTILIZER
Complexes - Granules
PEC
On every soil
For every culture
Fertilizer Pec ...
... no failure

D655 x D9 (Gironde, France); VII.2000;
pict. M. Chartier

Phosamo — l'engrais complet
Phosamo — the complete fertilizer

Observe the peculiar lettering: the O eats the preceding character.
Notice also the skilled use of the shadow: the brand really jumps in our direction.

La Mure (N85, France); VIII.2000; pict. M. Chartier

Aliments STAR and Compos?? TOTEM
The top part of the wall states
Deux marques - une qualité or Two brands - same quality

The wattled egg probably announces STAR as chicken food. The graphics of the TOTEM brand are more inspired. The center 'T' emulates a real Totem made from sheep and cattle heads.

Fourques (D615, France), 17.X.2015; pict. J. Helmons

Fitou (D6009, 11 France), 2.X.2015; pict. J. Helmons

Solonia — engrais liquides (or liquid fertilizer)

The Office national industriel de l'azote came into existence on April 11, 1924. After a long history of making fertilizer and explosives ONIA became AZF (Azote Fertilisants). AZF made headlines with the catastrophic explosion of September 21st, 2001 making the city of Toulouse look like a war zone.

Solonia (concatenation of soil & ONIA) was introduced in 1962 (press conference with a visit to the test plots). This gives us also an earliest date for the paintings which are rather young compared with many others on this site.

In 1967 the company had a special edition of Astérix et les Normands published. The album is enriched with a nice plate showing a springtime scene suggesting that Solonia is a real magic potion.