Biocontrol in Brazil grows 29% annually in area over last six seasons

The use of biocontrol in Brazilian agriculture has been growing 29% per year based upon measurements of biocontrol products per treated area (PTA), according to Kynetec data presented at BioSummit 2025. The second edition of the event is taking place in Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo state, Brazil, with special coverage by AgroPages.

In terms of revenue, the biological pesticide market in Brazilian agriculture showed a 34% annual growth in US dollar value over the last six seasons. This impressive performance has occurred primarily in Brazil's largest crops, including soybeans, cotton, and summer corn.

The figures are part of a survey conducted among 16,200 farmers in 2,264 cities, covering 29 crops. Kynetec presented the information during a panel entitled, "The numbers of the bioinput market in Brazil and worldwide. What is the value of the transition to more sustainable agriculture?"

Cristiano Limberger

According to Kynetec's customer service manager, Cristiano Limberger, the adoption of some type of biocontrol now exceeds use in 43% of a planted area of 85,054,000 hectares, a 2% growth compared to the 23/24 season. The two main crops – soybeans and corn – represent 77% of biocontrol use. This market represents a value of BRL 4.99 billion.

BioSummit began with the panel entitled, "Can Brazil lead global sustainability? What does the world expect from us?" with participation from Embrapa President Silvia Massruhá, Mosaic's country manager, and vice president Eduardo Monteiro, and the executive secretary of the Legal Amazon States Consortium, Marcello Brito. The panel’s moderator was the senior partner and global leader of McKinsey's Agribusiness Practice, Nelson Ferreira.

Silvia Massruhá	Eduardo Monteiro	Marcello Brito

Massruhá addressed the challenges the country faces to reach this position of global leadership, noting that over the past 50 years, Brazil has become a reference in tropical agriculture worldwide, moving from importer to exporter status for various products.

"The challenge is to show how much our agriculture sustains itself, not only from an economic standpoint but also environmentally and socially. We have two or three harvests in the same area, we have crop-livestock-forest integration, bio-based products, and all of this contributes to sustainability and the preservation of natural resources," noted Massruhá.

According to Massruhá, there needs to be socio-productive and digital inclusion of small and medium producers, with associated public policies that incentivize them to adopt regenerative agriculture practices. "To summarize, we are working on sustainability indicators as a reference for tropical agriculture, on the bioeconomy route, production of bio-based products, bioinputs and biofertilizers, on agriculture decarbonization, and with technologies for adaptation to climate change," she said.

Marcello Brito pointed out that Brazil needs to understand that it is an agro-environmental power, having carried out an agricultural revolution over the past 50 years. "We have 500 million hectares with vegetation cover and more than 200 million hectares in preserved private areas," he added.

"What agribusiness preserves corresponds to a green area larger than Europe, yet we continue discussing the agro-environmental model as we did in the 1970s, with unnecessary agro-environmentalist dichotomies. We have the opportunity to transform this now, and I think the world expects Brazil to take a step in the inclusion of bioinputs and in the transformation of regenerative agriculture, to show that this power we have become continues to be a power in this new agriculture that the world expects,"  Brito noted.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)