Use of drones for biological pest control attracts investors

The use of drones for biological pest control is attracting more and more investors in Brazil. Venture capital funds and innovation promotion programs are especially interested in using these vehicles for the dispersion of biological agents.

An example is the startup Sardrones, which developed a device that disperses agents such as Cotesia, Trichogramma, and Telenomus, having already covered more than 150,000 hectares of sugarcane, soy, and even avocado.

With only two years of experience in the field, Sardrones has just been selected from more than 400 startups to be part of a group of 11 companies. It will receive investments of R$15 million from the Startup Invest Summit program, through an association with the venture capital fund Bossa Nova Investimentos, one of the most active in the B2B market.

The company brings together large Brazilian agricultural producers such as Raizen, Jalles Machado, Adecoagro, and Bunge. “We created a solution to fill the shortage of manpower with the advantage of being faster, more accurate, and efficient. In the case of sugarcane, for example, access to the countryside, where biological agents need to be released, is quite unhealthy and dangerous for the worker,” explained agronomist Gustavo Scarpari, founder of Sardrones.

“We increased our billings by eight times in 2020. The market for biological agents has tripled in the last two years and will continue to triple in the coming years. Our business, however, follows the rhythm of agribusiness, which is not comparable to that of software companies or fintechs,” explained Scarpari. Therefore, he wants to prioritize future partnerships with companies that already work with agriculture.

In addition to the gadget, Sardrones developed a geo-referenced application that monitors releases of agents according to agronomic recommendations and records climatic aspects, such as temperature, wind, and humidity, which can influence its efficiency.

Currently, the company can disperse Cotesia flavipes (tiny wasps that fight the sugarcane borer) and Trichogramma (wasps dispersed still in the form of eggs), both for the cultivation of sugarcane. Work has also been carried out with Telenomus podisi (another wasp species) in soybean crops.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)