Jose Nolasco on the Spanish biostimulants market: ″Biostimulants are becoming a must″

Classic crop management for farmers has been mainly aimed at three areas: irrigation, nutrition, and crop protection. These are important, but according to Jose Nolasco, the Head of Research and Development for Bionutrition at Rovensa Next, they are not the main challenge of the greenhouse farmer anymore. There is a fourth element that strongly impacts the others: stress management.

"The impact of climatic events such as heat, cold, and drought stress is huge. It affects the quality of crops tremendously, and that is what greenhouse farmers are looking for these days: quality. One of the most relevant problems farmers face is dealing with climate change. Healthy and safe food needs to be produced, all with high quality. This has to be done within the changing climate conditions and with less input per hectare. This is a really difficult challenge to many farmers, and in my opinion, biostimulants play a fundamental role in this challenge."

Jose says that biostimulants, or solutions, are key to stress management and, as such, have become a key topic for many growers.

Biostimulant market in Spain

"The market is growing for greenhouses since farmers are now noticing that biostimulants are becoming a must. In my opinion, it's quite impossible to produce high-quality, healthy, and safe food in a greenhouse without dealing with crop stress as a critical issue that needs to be managed. In the Spanish market, we already see that biostimulants are as important for greenhouse growers as irrigation or nutrition is. The stress will always be there; nothing can change that; you have to reduce and manage it."
Because of that, Rovensa develops biosolutions for sustainable agriculture from the start of the cultivation to the end of the growing period. Jose explained that there are different types of stress during the cycle, so there are many biosolutions needed to manage the plant stress.

"It's important to find the right stimulant for the right crop at the right time. When you see a biostimulant that's for everything, that's just false. There is no one solution for every situation. We go for specific effects in specific scenarios. We try to think in a holistic way to help the farmer produce more with less, you need more than just biostimulants. After all, growing is a complex process. We aim to provide full range of biosolutions for sustainable agriculture to the farmer. A safe and natural product."

A healthy future

"In our sector, biofertilizers and biostimulants will become more relevant; the main driver is consumers in supermarkets. People want to see safe and healthy food and take care of our planet. Then we need to go in this direction, and I think we'll see more and more of it. The farmer needs it to deliver what the public is asking for. The biosolution sector of the market is growing rapidly, and Rovensa Next, as a company, has a lot of experience in this area. In fact, we're at the forefront of this movement, leveraging our extensive experience and ongoing investment in research and development to deliver innovative solutions that empower growers and secure a sustainable future for agriculture."