Brazil: Sumitomo herbicide grows in treated area in the 2019/2020 harvest

Nearly four years after its launch, the ZethaMaxx brand of herbicide, from the portfolio of the Japanese company Sumitomo Chemical, was the one that was used the most in Brazil in the treated area, in the pre-emerging segment, in the 2019-20 cycle. 

The data is from the study BIP - Business Intelligence Panel, from consultancy Spark Inteligência Strategica. According to the survey, the product treated 1.1 million hectares of soybean crops in the last harvest and exceeded the mark of 2.1 million hectares applied in the growth of the last three crops.

According to agronomist Murilo Borges, manager of herbicides at Sumitomo Chemical, ZethaMaxx has been used at different points of the wide agricultural frontier of Brazilian soy. The product, with a pre-emergent action, won favor with producers mainly for the benefits that it transfers to the pre-sowing term and desiccation of the oilseed, he added.

“The product is effective on several species of invasive plants that are difficult to control in different regions of the soybean agricultural frontier. The exclusive formulation of the product provides a prolonged residual effect, thus reducing losses due to the initial weed competition with oilseeds,” Borges said.

Borges also attributed the robust result obtained by Sumitomo Chemical, in the commercialization of ZethaMaxx, to the increasing overlap observed in the sowing of 'RR' crops in the soybean areas. This scenario significantly increased the number of weed species resistant to glyphosate, added the agronomist.

“Today, we know of at least nine plants with this characteristic, and that number is only going to increase. To control them, we recommend using pre-emergent herbicides with different mechanisms of action. This is certainly the best tool to protect and provide longevity to the herbicide molecules present in the Brazilian agricultural production system. In these treatments called 'resistance management', ZethaMaxx delivers differentiated results to the producer,” Borges added.

“By acting efficiently on monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous invaders, the product rescues the tranquility of the soybean producer with regard to the management of weeds,” he said in conclusion.

The original Portuguese version of this report is from GRUPO CULTIVAR.