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Launch SPARCBio biological control research center in Brazil - Interview with José Parra
Feb. 27, 2020
With an investment of R$40 million, the SPARCBio Biological Control Research Center (São Paulo Advanced Research Center for Biological Control) was launched. The new center is an unprecedented initiative in Brazil, which aims to establish a new management model for controlling pests and diseases in tropical regions.
SPARCBio was conceived through a partnership between FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation), Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz” (Esalq/USP) and Koppert Biological Systems. Below is an interview with the center’s director, Professor José Roberto Postali Parra.What is SPARCBio?
It is a center of research excellence in biological control in São Paulo. The acronym in English means the São Paulo Advanced Research Center for Biological Control (SPARCBio). It is financed by FAPESP, by Koppert Biological Systems, a Dutch biological control company that is the largest in the world with offices in 27 countries, and by the University of São Paulo (USP), represented by Esalq.
The center’s headquarters is located at the Esalq Entomology and Acarology Department in Piracicaba, São Paulo. It has a well-defined organizational structure, with 50 renowned local and international researchers, including an international monitoring committee composed of representatives from the USA and Europe. The center’s director will be researcher José Roberto Postali Parra of the Esalq Entomology and Acarology Department.
How does the new management model for pest and disease control in tropical regions work?
There are research projects, listed according to priorities, related to soy, corn, sugar cane, cotton and fruit crops. These are also short, medium and long-term biological control research projects to meet the demand of the sector, which currently generates R$500 million annually, with the aim of increasing profits. The utilization of new macro and micro-organisms combined with biological agents currently under study should increase the portfolio of biological control agents, which are still small-scale in Brazil compared to Europe.
These agents may be used, depending on the crop, in isolation or, preferably, as part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs.
What are the expected objectives and within what timeframes?
The center, as previously mentioned, has several short, medium and long-term objectives. It is difficult, in research, to predict the timeframe when a technology or product can be used by a farmer. Sometimes, the results can come quickly, other times they do not work, and still at other time they can take longer. For example, the wasp, Trichogramma galloi, which today is used in 2 million hectares of sugarcane crops to control the sugarcane borer, took 15 years to reach farmers. On the other hand, Ageniaspis citricola, a biological agent imported to control the citrus miner, was being successfully released in fields across the state of São Paulo within two years. Ultimately, SPARCBio will conduct research to generate biological control products and technologies, as part of the IPM towards sustainable agriculture.
Source: AgroNews
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