How Fyteko’s Bringing Biomolecule Innovation to Latin American Agriculture

When agri-biomolecule pioneer Fyteko first spotted the potential of its initial discovery – the hydroxycinnamic acid oligomers (HAOs) around which the company was founded, back in 2014 – Latin America was always in its sights, despite the company’s European origins.

That’s because HAO is a potent biostimulant with exciting properties in an age when the agricultural industry is concerned about the possible effects of climate change on crop production. Climate scientists say climate change is one of the biggest threats facing agriculture over the next 50 years – and South American agriculture will likely be amongst the regions of the world where it’s most keenly felt.

‘Hydrometeorological hazard, including droughts, heatwaves, cold waves, tropical cyclones and floods, have unfortunately led to…severe damages to crop production’, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s 2022 report, State of Climate in Latin America and Caribbean. Unprecedented recent droughts in the Parana-La Plata basin, encompassing Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, bear witness to the report’s observations, with severe impacts on global crop markets owing to serious effects on soybean and maize production.

During the 2020-2021 season, losses attributed to these droughts amounted to -2.6%, a significant decrease on the previous season. While projections of the effects of climate change on crop yields vary, depending on the crop type and location, the majority suggest that crops like soybean and maize will experience yield decline owing to climate change (Reyer et al., 2015).

Fyteko’s Brussels-based CEO, Guillaume Wegria, expresses his concerns for the future. ″Brazil and Argentina – these are ‘powerhouse’ agricultural economies where the world can’t afford to lose productivity and yield.

″Yet even ‘mild’ climate change will make growing crops more difficult. We’re already seeing that, despite not yet reaching the critical 1.5C global warming threshold that so concerns the climate specialists,″ he points out.

″I don’t think there’s any doubt that the world has woken up to the fact that agriculture will need to change. The industry itself knows it’s in transition, with farmers and suppliers alike waking up to the fact that we must move to a more resilient production model, one reliant on lower inputs and which is more sustainable.″

From the outset, Wegria and his Fyteko co-founder Dr Juan Carlos Cabrera believed they would forge a new way forward: a bio-based agricultural input economy, tapping original research to identify and emulate solutions that already exist in nature.

That’s why HAO is so exciting, says Wegria, citing the distribution deals that Fyteko has won with global giants such as Limagrain, Sumi-Agro, and regional European players Cerience and Technisem.

″Farmers are most concerned about the propensity for greater occurrence of drought events,″ explains Wegria. ″It’s no secret that crops in some parts of the world already struggle to get enough water to reach their yield potential. Decreased, or less frequent rainfall, coupled with higher temperatures, could cause more crops to fail.″

And that’s where HAO comes in. Fyteko discovered that the compound – already known to science and regarded merely as a simple but necessary component in plant cell walls – had another, far more interesting property. They can act as a ‘signal molecule’ within the plant which, when applied to an otherwise healthy crop, ‘primes’ the plant against abiotic stresses such as drought or high temperatures.

Latin America was one of the first areas in which Fyteko conducted trials with HAO, showing an average yield increase of more than 5 per cent. Further trials were also conducted with the region’s universities and local industrial players to see how it performed with the soybeans that dominate agriculture in this part of the world.

″LATAM’s continued to play an important part in Fyteko’s journey with HAO,″ enthuses Wegria. ″Early field trials in Argentina gave us highly promising results not just with soybean, but also in maize and wheat. This gave us the confidence to pursue further expansion in the region, and to use the results from Latin America to help us optimise both the product and its protocols.″

Efficacy trials for the registration procedure in Argentina were carried out by INTA, Argentina’s federal extension agency responsible for overseeing and adopting new agri-technologies. Completed in 2020, the trials took place within important soybean areas like Diamante and Balcarce, where the yield increases were 16% and 14% respectively. Argentina’s registrations of NURSPRAY^®_HC and NURSEED^®_HC were granted in 2021.

″Across the Latin American countries in which we’re pursuing or have already achieved registrations, we’ve seen some impressive results,″ recounts Wegria. ″We’ve brought HAO to the market as two products: NURSEED^®_HC and NURSPRAY^®_HC, seed and foliar treatments respectively.

″For the two major row crops in Latin American countries, soybean and maize, results show an average increase of 4.5% for the seed treatment, and 7% for the foliar segment,″ he points out.

With the Latin American biostimulants market experiencing unparalleled growth – driven by the move towards more sustainable practices – the pace of progress is astonishing. Fyteko’s dedicated team in Latin America is now focusing on how to maximise the effectiveness of the seed and foliar treatment solutions under local conditions, further helped by participation in key industry events such as the prestigious BioAg Congress in Rio and the Biostimulants LATAM Congress, held in Cancun.

″There’s no doubt that developing an innovative, truly ground-breaking biomolecule like HAO is more difficult than, say, a ‘traditional’ agrochemical,″ Wegria notes. ″That’s why it’s so important to be developing every market with a team specific to, and aware of, the local conditions.

″We’re making good progress in every region in which we’re active or developing solutions, and that’s because of the way we’ve put NURSEED^®_HC through multiple trials with research stations and seed companies to assess its efficacy, value and performance when used with predominant agricultural practices and how it integrates with conventional seed treatments.″

And the success with registration in Argentina has fired up Fyteko to make further progress in other Latin American countries. Registration is now underway in Brazil, with Mexico the next in line.

Wegria also says that ‘interesting and stable results’ from Europe, where the company has moved beyond row crops to applications for other crops such as grapevine, present a further opportunity for the company in Latin America. ″NURSPRAY^® could be a great fit across either side of the Andes, in both Argentina and Chile.

″Looking at all the various crops throughout Latin America, we see great potential for our HAO technology – and other products coming forth from our biomolecule development platform – to challenge and solve many of the specific problems that farmers face in maximising their crop productivity.″