Tested, proven, applied – NPP’s biosolutions are meeting the needs of farms and farmers

″All our future development will be in-line with our values: farmer-first, sustainably-minded, and open to collaboration. We’re going to be constantly working with growers and distributors to meet their needs with readily available, cost-effective, and environmentally low-impact solutions. We’re going to be seeking out and building new partnerships through the OpenAg network, always open to different approaches and new ways of thinking. We’re going to continue demonstrating the strength of the ProNutiva programme. And we’re furthering our mission to Reimagine Sustainability - reshaping the relationship between growers and their fields, ensuring that what’s good for crops is also good for the planet and farmers,″said Ezio Costa, NPP Business Unit Leader at UPL in a recent interview with AgroPages.

He also shared his views on UPL‘s ‘NPP’ business unit and its core strengths, biological product lines&special features, production facilities and relevant capabilities, business model&challenges, as well as future development plan etc.

Ezio Costa, NPP Business Unit Leader at UPL

Could you introduce UPL‘s ‘NPP’ business unit and performance since its launch in June 2021? Outline key strategic events/global outreach/ cooperation and acquisition activities of NPP platform, and its core strengths in this area?

We offer growers a comprehensive portfolio of biosolutions covering crop nutrition and resilience, protection against pests and diseases, and soil health. We take a ‘farmer first’ approach, and are committed to providing global small, medium and large-scale farmers with bespoke and effective naturally derived agricultural inputs so they can sustainably improve their productivity and profitability.

We launched in June 2021 as a business unit of UPL Ltd, a global provider of sustainable agriculture solutions. Since then we have experienced strong growth supported by a strong market. The wider biosolutions market has a projected compound average growth rate (CAGR) of around 14% over the next five years, but we want to surpass that and aim for 20% CAGR in the next five years.

A key success for us has been the partnership we signed with Chr. Hansen, the global bioscience company, in October 2021, combining their unique microbial expertise and UPL’s global distribution network to develop new microbial-based pest and disease management biosolutions. We recently announced the first product from this partnership, ZOATIN - a bacterial-based technology that solubilizes otherwise unavailable forms of phosphorous in the soil to improve crops’ ability to take up and utilize the nutrient for maximum yield and improved health.

I have to credit our team for our success. We’ve grown to over 152 full time employees, giving us incredibly deep expertise across the three key biocontrol tech platforms that are supporting our organic growth – seaweed, plant extracts, and copper and sulphur. But we’re also accelerating investment in new platforms like microbials and viruses to develop the next generation of biological solutions with the speed and agility that UPL and NPP are known for.

At NPP, we’re also able to synergise our biosolutions with UPL’s conventional inputs to offer a comprehensive combined package that provides stronger, more sustainable results. We call this the ProNutiva concept, and trials from around the world on a variety of crops are seeing farmers achieve higher yields, with reduced residues and greater profitability.

Finally, being part of UPL’s distribution network means we’re able to bypass many of the global supply chain issues we’ve seen develop in the past few years – ensuring growers of all size in remote and rural regions can rely on us.

Could you give us an overview of biological product lines of ‘NPP’ platform and their special features? What are the strategic considerations of integrating/ developing biosolutions?

Our product lines offer growers and distributors comprehensive packages covering bio-control (Bio-insecticides, Bio-Fungicides, Bio-Nematicides, Bio-Herbicides, etc.) and biologicals for plant and soil health (inoculants, PGPRs, etc.). As I mentioned previously, one of the key benefits with NPP’s products is that they can be used for a completely biological approach, but we are focusing on ensuring they can also be combined with UPL’s conventional solutions through the ProNutiva programme, offering farmers the most efficient, effective, and sustainable package of inputs possible.

Our fundamental consideration when developing products is our ‘farmer first’ approach. So, we ask ‘what do our customers need?’ Being technologically agnostic, we’ll work with any technological platform that can deliver the best solution for our customers’ requirements – supporting their crops, supporting the environment, and supporting the global food chain. And this means our inputs are also financially viable for farmers, enjoy broad regulatory approval across jurisdictions, and are environmentally and socially responsible.

Could you talk about UPL’s R&D, technology and production facilities and relevant capabilities on ‘NPP’ business unit? What's the biggest challenges during above process?

The core of our R&D process is that we start in the fields, not the labs. It’s a customer-centric approach, so local scientists work with farmers and distributors to understand what’s happening on the ground, the core challenges our customers face, and then develop solutions and interventions accordingly.

This approach is facilitated by our six state-of-the-art R&D facilities located around the world. In France, our team in Pau works on live insect viruses while the team in St. Malo works on biostimulants and biocontrols from seaweed; In Saltillo, Mexico, we’re developing plant extract-based biostimulants and innovative nutrition inputs; Derdepoort, South Africa is working with live microbes; Bangalore, India on microbial fermentation; and our team in Cary, USA, is working through the OpenAg Center to test solutions and build partnerships.

The tremendous technical expertise, geographic footprint, and gender diversity of our team enables us to think differently about problems, discover novel solutions, and build a rich pipeline of NPP solutions to give our customers the solutions they need for stronger and healthier crops and soil.

One example is our K-tionic development.  Growers are seeking more sustainable synthetic fertilizers, so our team in Mexico has developed an innovative product made from recycled oxidized lignin. K-tionic allows growers to optimize fertilizer input, returns carbon to the soil supporting soil health, and recycles a waste stream product (lignin).

Being a business unit of UPL, we also have access to UPL’s own R&D and manufacturing facilities – something many of our biosolutions competitors lack. Access to these resources is a firm commitment by the OpenAg network and UPL to investing in developing the sustainable biosolutions portfolio.

Finally, as a part of the OpenAg network, we believe firmly in open collaboration with partners, stakeholders, and other scientists. Working together we can truly Reimagine Sustainability for farmers and food systems: developing and distributing solutions and innovations that unlock new opportunities and outcomes for our global growers  and support them to feed an increasing population whilst safeguarding our planet.

What is the business model of ‘NPP’ business and the criteria in choosing partners?

Fundamentally we build partnerships with those who share our values – farmer-first, sustainably-minded, and open to collaboration. If we share these values, it’s easy to get products to the marketplace as everyone is thinking in the same direction. That goes for the entire OpenAg network - it’s built on shared values and attracts partners who share our vision for sustainable agriculture rooted in collaboration.

What are the biggest challenges encountered in the promotion and application process of biologicals? How did your company cope with them? 

The biosolutions market is growing even faster than predicted, so hurdles are coming down as application methods become widely adopted by farmers. It’s become a positive cycle, helping eliminate its own challenges.

Nonetheless, we’re also working with growers, farmers, distributors, and retailers to build knowledge of our products, demonstrate application processes, share best practices, and ensure growers are using solutions safely and to the best of their potential.

Like all providers, we need to prove to our customers that our solutions work. At NPP, we’re able to show our customers strong scientific and real-world proofs from our R&D process, our seven field stations around the world, the OpenAg Farm and OpenAg Centre, and our work with partner farmers.  

Could you share some changes and challenges of market requirements, regulation & policy and application technologies of biological industry? What are the countermeasures of UPL?

We’re a global company, so we’re aware and respectful of a range of regulatory jurisdictions. Ultimately, we stay agile and adaptable because respecting regulations speaks to our values. Regulations are there to help growers, communities, and the environment - and so are we.

What’s the future development plan of ‘NPP’ business? 

All our future development will be in-line with our values: farmer-first, sustainably-minded, and open to collaboration. We’re going to be constantly working with growers and distributors to meet their needs with readily available, cost-effective, and environmentally low-impact solutions. We’re going to be seeking out and building new partnerships through the OpenAg network, always open to different approaches. We’re going to continue demonstrating the strength of the ProNutiva programme. And we’re furthering our mission to Reimagine Sustainability - reshaping the relationship between growers and their fields, ensuring that what’s good for crops is also good for the planet and farmers.

Tell us about NPP’s portfolio for Soil Health – and what benefits this brings in terms of farmer resilience, adaptation, productivity and biodiversity?

Soil health, carbon footprint, regenerative agriculture and respecting the land are vitally important topics – Soil is after all the foundation of agriculture, and with its carbon sequestration capabilities, one of the most overlooked and underutilised assets in our fight against climate change. Supporting soil health helps crops thrive, which helps farmers thrive too.

We believe all our products have a part to play, so we aim to provide a holistic approach.  For example, Zeba is our leading multi-usage potato-starch based biosolution. It can absorb 500 times its mass in water, aiding water retention during extended periods of aridity, but once used, disintegrates and becomes a rich source of nutrition for soil and crop health. Every one of our biosolutions is supporting farmer productivity, biodiversity, and crop resilience and delivering a tangible improvement to soil health.

If you'd like to share your company/solutions story, please contact Grace Yuan via: grace@agropages.com