{"id":245558,"date":"2022-07-25T14:26:55","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T13:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/?p=245558"},"modified":"2022-08-02T10:18:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T09:18:46","slug":"from-precision-agriculture-to-precision-biocontrol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/from-precision-agriculture-to-precision-biocontrol\/","title":{"rendered":"From precision agriculture to precision biocontrol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ACoAAAymZxgBqORkDJ1t8ER8_-3w4eQI-a2L6F4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carolina Fernandez<\/a>, our R&amp;D Director, gave an interview for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/agribusiness-global\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AgriBusiness Global<\/a>&nbsp;and responded to some interesting questions about&nbsp;biological crop protection, bioprecision and the challenges ahead towards a world subject to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Where are we now with biological crop protection from the perspective of growers\/consultants\/ag retailers\/even the public? How is the role of these biological tools different than it was 5 years ago and where are we headed?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I personally believe that the change <strong>started probably about a decade ago<\/strong>, by the big companies of the sector, which <strong>started to show interest<\/strong> towards this alternative, and <strong>began to acquire<\/strong> small companies specialized in biocontrol, attracting the attention of <strong>all stakeholders<\/strong>. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, biocontrol products have grown to be <strong>now<\/strong> a <strong>significant part of the total crop protection market in fruits and vegetables<\/strong>. <strong>Today biological products represent<\/strong> about <strong>20%<\/strong> of total market value in these crops&nbsp; (fruits\/vegetables)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can say that today we are in the middle of a <strong>real<\/strong> <strong>transition<\/strong> to a <strong>more sustainable agriculture<\/strong>. It is clear that <strong>now<\/strong> all stakeholders <strong>recognize the value<\/strong> of biocontrol products, <strong>while 5 years ago there were more doubts<\/strong>\u2026 Growers\/End users <strong>routinely use<\/strong> biological PPPs in many cases. Biologicals are <strong>often integrated in <\/strong>Application Programs<strong> with chemical products<\/strong> to reduce <strong>pest resistance<\/strong> and also to reduce the <strong>chemical residues<\/strong> in these crops. This has been a big-big change from 5-10 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>How are (or how can) biological crop protection tools help with some of the many challenges ag is facing in 2022 from drought\/water issues out west, to supply chain issues, to rising costs, to labor?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We should think about biocontrol not as a single biocontrol agent vs. a pest or a disease, but through a more <strong>holistic <\/strong><strong>view, <u>in the context of<\/u> the <u>plant-soil-environment ecosystem<\/u>. Biocontrol <u>measures<\/u> should aim to a rebalance of this equilibrium and improve the health of the entire plant niche. <u>In this way<\/u> <u>it is easy to think<\/u> how these types of practices, including of course <\/strong>the use of<strong> biological PPP<\/strong>, could in first instance reduce the use of agrochemicals <strong>and in turn<\/strong> improve soil health, water issues, inputs and raw material costs and even agricultural practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am proud to work with this perspective at Futureco Bioscience where <strong>we are not only working on innovative<\/strong> biocontrol products, <strong>but we also approximate the issue from a metagenomic<\/strong> <strong>integrated soil microbiome perspective.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>How do biological crop protection tools fit with the new ag technology available now (scouting tools, new more precise application methods, etc.)<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The use of drones <strong>for scouting and identifying<\/strong> either crop <strong>stress<\/strong> or <strong>pest<\/strong> problems is <strong>expanding<\/strong> globally. We see drones being used for applications of bio solutions, both by <strong>foliar sprays<\/strong> microbial biopesticides and also by <strong>releasing of macroorganisms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve also seen innovative companies applying <strong>aerial imagery and software analysis<\/strong> to <strong>measure product performance<\/strong> more precisely. Some companies are applying these tools to <strong>research plots<\/strong> to better assess their products throughout the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is clear that precision agriculture is expanding: Biocontrol practices should not only take advantages of the latest technologies for <strong>improving analysis and applications<\/strong>, <strong>but also been inspired by them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we can think about precision agriculture, why we can\u2019t think about precision biocontrol? It is clear that <strong>we should tend to be less invasive<\/strong> and more \u201con target\u201d, <strong>avoiding chemicals or more in general broad-spectrum pesticides<\/strong> that could harm pollinators and other beneficial insects and microorganisms. <strong>What if we could offer<\/strong> a more detailed and precise form of biocontrol using \u201cad hoc\u201d microorganisms consortia? Please\u2026think about it!<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carolina Fernandez, our R&amp;D Director, gave an interview for&nbsp;AgriBusiness Global&nbsp;and responded to some interesting questions about&nbsp;biological crop protection, bioprecision and the challenges ahead towards a world subject to climate change. Where are we now with biological crop protection from the perspective of growers\/consultants\/ag retailers\/even the public? How is the role of these biological tools different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":245559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futurecobioscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}