Brazil already accounts for 433 biopesticides registered until March 2022, representing an increase of 404% over nine years.

Last year, Brazilian soybean farmers spent BRL829 million on biological pest control while in 2019, they investment BRL391 million, according to Blink Consultancy.

In 2013, there were only 107 biological pesticides registered in the country, indicating that Brazil leads the adoption of these alternative inputs.

Furthermore, by March this year, 502 agricultural biological products have already been registered, proving that this trend is here to stay.

Anthracnose, target spot, white mold and Asian rust are some of the major foliar diseases that cause considerable losses to Brazilian soybean crops.

To combat these diseases, Brazilian producers make several applications of chemical fungicides annually, and, at each cycle, the resistance of pathogens requires the development of new actives to control them.

To achieve greater efficiency, profitability and sustainably, producers have been investing more in integrated management and biopesticides to control diseases in crops.

According to Blink, over the past two years, the development of biological pesticides using high formulation technology has driven a 75% growth of this market in the country, rising from BRL946 million in 2019 to BRL1.79 billion in 2021.

A study by IHS Markit also predicts the sector to reach BRL16.9 billion in value by 2030.

Soy crops account for almost half of the use of biopesticides in the country today.

Source: AgoNews