Integrated solutions in seeds, pesticides and pheromones highlighted at Brazilian Cotton Congress

At the 13th Brazilian Cotton Congress (CBA) on August 17, 2022, the topic at the center of discussion was, ″Biotechnologies are essential tools to reduce producers' costs with insecticides, allowing the plants themselves to exert control over pests.″  

Promoted by the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers (Abrapa), the event concluded on August 18, bringing together the main actors in the segment's production chain at the Convention Center in Salvador, Bahia.

During the event, Provivi, a biotechnology company founded by Brazilian chemist Pedro Coelho, chemical engineer Frances H. Arnold (Nobel Prize in Chemistry) and Peter Meinhold, had highlighted, at its stand, the Pherogen^® solution, a product based on more sustainably produced pheromone with a non-toxic mode of action for the control of fall armyworm (spodoptera frugiperda).

″We are super happy that in this last cotton crop being harvested we have now managed to do 15,000 hectares of testing with our technology. There is nothing better than presenting Pherogen^® at the 13th Brazilian cotton congress, in a sustainable way, a non-toxic, innovative technology, and the first in Brazil,″ highlighted Alexandre Develey, a Provivi official in Brazil on Biological Pest Management.

BASF presented the grand launch of the Belyan^® fungicide, meant to control the most complex of cotton diseases - including ramularia, which is considered the main one. This new solution will be part of a generation of innovative products that will provide greater health to crops. As BASF's Senior Cotton Manager Warley Palota explained, ″We have brought solutions in agricultural pesticides, in the area of seeds and technologies that tackle crop management. BASF presented a new technology to the market that will help the producer in the management of weeds and the control of insects and lizards.″