Brazil Breaks New Record for Low-Impact Pesticide Registrations in 2022

Brazil broke a new record for registrations of low-impact pesticides in 2022, according to the Department of Plant Health and Agricultural Inputs of the Agricultural Defense Secretariat, linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA). Last year, 136 new formulated products were registered, including 92 new bio-based products and 79 products with authorized use for organic agriculture.

This result represents an increase of 48% when comparing the 92 products registered in the year 2021. This is, to date, the largest number of product registrations of this profile in the same year, proving that Brazil remains the world leader in adoption of bioinputs. Products considered to have low impact have biological, microbiological, semi-chemical, biochemical, plant extracts and growth regulator active ingredients, and may be authorized in several cases in organic agriculture.

Table 1: Annual registration evolution of low-impact products (biological microbiological, semiochemicals, biochemicals, plant extracts, and growth regulators)

According to the Department of Plant Health and Agricultural Inputs, low-impact products are important for agriculture not only because of their toxicological and environmental impact, but also because they benefit crops with insufficient phytosanitary support (minor crops), as these products are registered by pests and not by crop, as with agrochemicals.

″These products represent new alternatives for controlling weeds that can cause a great impact on productivity, with less toxicity to humans and the environment than other alternatives authorized today″, highlights the substitute general coordinator for Agrochemicals and Related Products, Marina Dourado.

According to her, the registration of ″generic″ or post-patent pesticides is important to reduce market concentration and increase competition. The result of this, highlights the substitute general coordinator, results in fairer trade and lower production costs for Brazilian agriculture.

″All registered products were analyzed and approved by the bodies responsible for health, environment and agriculture, according to scientific criteria and in line with the best international practices″, guarantees MAPA.

National Bio-inputs Program Advances

Alessandro Cruvinel, the coordinator of MAPA's National Bio-inputs Program, speaking exclusively to AgroPages, said that bill number 658/2021 has been moving forward, which ratifies the Program and aims to regulate the production of bioinputs in Brazil, including that made on-frm. ″This bill is very important for MAPA to be able to establish appropriate registration and inspection rules for bioinputs, since today the entire procedure is subordinated to the law on pesticides or the law on fertilizers, preventing, for example, the registration of bioinputs with more than one aptitude, such as those that function as pest control and stimulant at the same time and yet″, he commented.

According to him, several indicators show that Brazilian public policies to encourage bioinputs have had an effect: ″We can highlight the large number of new commercial products available every year, including biofungicides, bioinsecticides, and bionematicides, among others″.

″Another piece of data that is also impressive is the annual growth rate of the bio-input market, which in recent years has reached 55%, that is, four times greater than the growth rate of the synthetic products market in Brazil. This means that approximately 5% of the plant protection market in Brazil is already bio-inputs and that in a short time it should reach 20% of the market if these growth rates continue″, added Cruvinel in an interview with AgroPages.

In December 2022, the ″Bioinput Innovation Network″ was established, which came into force in January 2023. The Network aims to provide interaction between agencies and entities that are interested in using microorganisms in the development of solutions for agricultural production, sustainable way.

To facilitate communication between interested parties, the Bioinput Innovation Network will have an online platform on microorganism collections, open innovation, multi-user laboratories and bioinputs in general. Among the purposes of the Network are: expanding the production and use of bioinputs in production chains and encouraging innovation initiatives and projects. Admission to the Bioinput Innovation Network will be open to bodies and entities, public or private.

″We expect the growth of the bio-based products market to continue growing at rates of up to 50% per year in Brazil, values above the international market, consolidating these technologies on a large scale and providing cost reduction and sustainable intensification of agricultural production″, highlights the coordinator of the Brazilian National Bio-inputs Program.

″We believe that by 2025 the market [of biopesticides] will already have at least a 15% market share in plant protection and by 2030 it could reach 50%. These numbers assume that the current growth rate is maintained. If this scenario is consolidated, Brazil should become the main producer/consumer of bioinputs, carrying out an increasingly sustainable agriculture with benefits for producers, the environment and consumers″, concludes Alessandro Cruvinel.

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This article was initially published in AgroPages' '2023 Latin America Focus' magazine.

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