"Adopting non-synthetic alternatives and transitioning to more sustainable management are important issues in current agricultural practices. The international market and regulations, especially in destinations such as Europe, have increased interest in agricultural solutions, such as biological control, botanical extracts, microbiological insecticides and fungicides, and natural enemies. These transitions are not always motivated by conviction, but by market demands and regulatory restrictions," stated Freddy Piedra, general manager of the Bio Control SA company, which is celebrating 25 years of presence in the Costa Rican agricultural sector this year.
"The main inputs offered by the company include insecticides, biological fungicides and nematicides, microbiological products, botanical extracts, invertebrates, entomological materials, adjuvants, biostimulants, and equipment. These products are part of biological control strategies that seek to reduce the use of synthetic agrochemicals," Piedra stated. However, he clarified, Bio Control SA does not promote organic agriculture as an end in itself, but rather regenerative and sustainable agriculture that is environmentally friendly.
An important component of their work is the PIMAR program (Comprehensive Resource Maximization Program), a proprietary methodology that combines different alternatives to optimize water use, inputs, the farm's staff working hours, and profitability.
For example, Bio Control has introduced high-end adjuvants, based on nanotechnology and Spanish ultra-low volume application equipment for herbicide application, which drastically reduce water use: from 400 litres per hectare in traditional methods to only 20 litres per hectare. This reduction saves water, an expensive resource in terms of extraction, pumping, storage, transport, conditioning, and handling. It also decreases the personnel's physical effort and time applying treatments, increasing efficiency, reducing production costs, and lowering active chemical load, with the use of PIMAR herbicides.
The company has also worked on tropicalizing solutions developed in other countries. "Many products that work effectively in temperate climates do not necessarily have the same performance in Costa Rica's microclimates. That's why Bio Control has invested in local validations and adaptations. This implies discarding alternatives that do not achieve an adequate effect in the tropics and adjusting management strategies for different crops and areas," Piedra stated.
According to Piedra, demand for these inputs has grown, "not so much because of the producers' conviction, but because of their need to comply with the international markets' regulatory requirements, especially of European markets, which impose limits on agrochemical residues." "There's still a strong dependence on traditional synthetic products, but the supply of non-synthetic tools is improving and gaining ground," he added.
"Regenerative agriculture and integrated crop management represent increasingly relevant avenues, not only because of regulatory and market pressures, but also because of the need to find viable and sustainable alternatives for agricultural productivity. However, there are still challenges, such as implementation costs, lack of clear policies and controls, the need for producers to be able to recognize the supply of high-quality products, and the need to break traditional production paradigms," he stated.
For more information:
Freddy Piedra
Bio Control, S.A.
Tel.: +506 8305 0505
Email: [email protected]
www.biocontrol.cr