Making Crop protection safer

Conventional crop protection products face increasing scrutiny.

In Europe, conventional crop protection products have their registration reviewed every 10 years, safety and environmental standards become more stringent and many conventional chemicals currently in use will be de-registered and will no longer be available for use by farmers. This will create demand for new products that do meet new requirements; products that are effective, safer and less damaging to the environment.

The cost to develop a new crop protection product is reported to require an investment of US$250 million and take 10 years, however with products being de-registered and withdrawn from the market, farmers need new safe, affordable crop protection products now. This is driving increased research to products that are safer and less harmful to the environment but still provide growers with necessary crop protection. Understandably, new crop protection actives based on plant and microbial extracts and natural minerals are generating substantial interest.

Reducing dependence on the so-called hard chemicals is important for the agriculture industry. And markets around the world are starting to accommodate this kind of thinking. In the US, there is a category for bio-pesticides to be registered for use as crop protection agents that are non-toxic and stimulate plant growth. The requirements for registration under this category are less stringent and restrictive than for hard chemicals, making it an attractive growth market. There is also some discussion regarding introducing a similar category in Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron wants pesticide use halved by 2025 and has suggested establishing a European food safety force. Brussels is in the final stages of reforming the General Food Law, which would give the European Food Safety Authority additional powers to conduct its own safety tests on products such as pesticides.

Scientists in Germany have sounded the alarm about massive insect losses in terms of species diversity and total biomass, with dire consequences for the animals that feed on them and for plants that require them for pollination. The recent insect decline is seen by experts as part of a gathering mass extinction of species, only the sixth in the last half-billion years. According to a peer-reviewed study by Francisco Sánchez-Bayo of the University of Sydney and Kris Wyckhuys of the University of Queensland in Australia: “Unless we change our way of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades.

As a consequence, the German state of Bavaria has announced that it will pass into law a popular “save the bees” petition that promises drastic changes in farming practices without putting it to a referendum first. The proposal sets a target for 20% of agricultural land to meet organic farming standards by 2025, before reaching 30% by 2030. To achieve these ambitious goals and increase productivity, farmers will need new products and technology that are safer for farmers, consumers and the environment and reliably allows the use of conventional pesticides to be reduced. However, farmers are concerned about a current lack of new products and technology that will let them minimise the amount of conventional chemicals they use.

BOOSTER-Mag fills this need. Calix has now completed its third year of field trials of BOOSTER-Mag on crops in Australia, and Europe. In Australia, large-scale trials on commercial farms demonstrated that BOOSTER-Mag suppressed pest and disease pressure to the point where conventional insecticide use could be halved, or in one case completely eliminated, without compromising yield or yield quality. Similarly, field trials on vines in the Champagne region of France demonstrated that BOOSTERMag treatment could enable conventional fungicide use to be substantially reduced without compromising yield. The results from recent field trials in the Netherlands are also very encouraging with BOOSTER-Mag demonstrated to provide greater control of a highly.

https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuelmacron-europerenaissance-vs-reality/

These new products include actives derived from natural plant extracts, bacteria that compete with plant diseases and actives that stimulate plants natural defences. Innovation is also occurring in growers crop treatment programs with greater consideration being given to the impact of beneficial insects, seed pretreating, plant breeding and even the soil biome. Many of these solutions do not have the overwhelming “knock-down” impact of traditional products and must be applied with a more preventative mindset.

In some cases, the push to develop new options for growers is being driven by growers.

An example of this is an established olive grower in southern Spain that has recently commenced a 12-month trial of BOOSTER-Mag. This forward-looking grower is investing his own resources into the project not only because of the imperative to reduce pesticide use and produce safely and sustainably, but also because of the premium he can achieve for lower residue produce.

Australian farmers are on a similar path. Once a product is banned from use in Europe, Australian regulators won’t be far behind. Australia also has a clean and green reputation to maintain, and relies on exports of food products to European countries where those products may be banned, so there is no incentive for Australian growers to continue using chemicals once they’re banned elsewhere.

All of this points to a burgeoning opportunity for non-chemical approaches to managing pests and disease in food crops. Calix is developing BOOSTER-Mag to provide a safe, low-cost, environmentally sustainable option for farmers around the world. It can help manage pests and disease without increasing growers’ input costs, and it can also help improve vitality and yield.
With support from the Australian Processing Tomato Research Council (APTRC) and local growers, a rigorous evaluation of BOOSTER–Mag was undertaken across 3 farms.

Insect related fruit damage was consistently reduced within all three farms.