Scheffer adopts ‘regenerative agriculture system,’ builds own biopesticide factory in Brazil

By Leonardo Gottems, Reporter for AgroPages

Being one of the largest grain and cotton producers in Brazil, Scheffer announced the adoption of the “regenerative agriculture system” and the construction of its own biopesticide factory. 

With this decision, the company is the first Brazilian rural property certified under the “Regenagri^®” program seal created by the global organization, Control Union.

Regenerative agriculture is a system that uses less agrochemicals and more biological products and preserves biodiversity. It is a set of agricultural practices that allows the soil to maintain and recover its “health,” improving its physical-chemical properties and increasing native biodiversity.

The system can be defined from four aspects, which are increasing the organic matter in the soil, preserving local biodiversity, sequestering carbon and managing water resources. The concept’s foundation is that a healthy ecosystem is composed of plants that are less vulnerable to phytosanitary threats while having good productivity. The “Regenagri” program certifies and monitors the performance of companies using more sustainable agricultural techniques for five years through a digital hub.

Today, Scheffer has a total production area of 4,055 hectares of cotton and soybean crops being monitored, as well as a specialist regenerative agriculture team working exclusively in the development of techniques to expand to all other production units of the company.

“We realized that conventional agriculture is less profitable and sustainable. At every cycle, it is necessary to increase the use of chemicals in sanitary control, which, at the same time, increases the resistance of pests and diseases. The only solution is to preserve, nourish and use biodiversity to our advantage,” said Guilherme Scheffer, Director of Scheffer.

Many of the agricultural techniques considered as regenerative are already utilized by Scheffer in all its production units. The company has reduced the use of chemical inputs and expanded the use of biological pesticides against crop pests and diseases. In addition, it practices direct planting, when sowing is done directly in the soil with straw without the need to plow or harrow the land, among other sustainable initiatives.

The current challenge is to expand practices even further, maintaining the company's economic and financial performance. “Regenagri's digital hub enables us to assess the initiatives that already work and can be expanded, as well as where we should improve and invest even more,” he added.

Biodefensive factory

Scheffer also modified its production infrastructure and built its own laboratory for analyzing microorganisms and the biodefensives industry, which produces, stores and distributes biological products to its other units. The company reduced the use of chemical inputs and expanded the use of biological pesticides against crop pests and diseases.

It also has an Industrial Effluent Treatment Station (ETEI) that reuses 100% of waste. The water it produces is destined for the irrigation of gardens, while solid waste is decomposed to generate the biochar used as crop fertilizers.

Recently, the company acquired a phosphorus miner, which produces a 100% national fertilizer, which has no chemical ingredients, is highly solubility and gradually releases phosphorus, minimizing the fixation of the nutrient in the soil and providing phosphorus to crops over a period of time during the entire cycle.