What's the Problem?

Every year 40% of crop production is lost due to pests, resulting in an impact of US$ 220 billion on the global economy. The growing demand for healthy food and sustainable crop production requires a significant reduction of chemical pesticides. On the other hand, there are increasing restrictions on chemical residue levels in crops and in by-products by global markets as well as regulatory agencies. Although today this is particularly true for intensive crops, the trend extends to row crops as well. In turn, today chemical products face serious resistance problems from pests, which turns into higher costs and fewer pest control tools for the grower. An alternative to chemical pesticides are biopesticides. These are friendly to the environment and to human health, they are ideal tools for resistance management and, aside of these benefits, their production has a significantly lower carbon footprint than chemical pesticides. However, this type of products is not adopted by growers. This is due to the fact that there is a tradition for using chemical pesticides, and because biopesticides sometimes do not reach the desired parameters of efficacy and consistency.