The future of crop protection is hybrid

Date:01-07-2019

For centuries, farmers have sought to shield their crops from weeds, pests, nematodes, and various diseases by using pesticides to protect and continue nourishing the food humans rely on to survive. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing amount of pressure around the effectiveness of existing products, regulatory demands, and consumer concerns. This has caused an eruption in the industry, forcing us to rethink traditional methods and search for newer, more innovative growth solutions and modes of action.

The three challenges of crop protection

•    Effectiveness of existing products - Fungal pathogens, insects and herbs develop resistance to chemical pesticides leading to a higher risk of their reinforcement through further applications.
•    Regulatory demands - Pesticide residuals affect people's health and impacts the environment causing an acceleration of stricter regulation to limit chemical residue.
•    Consumer pressures - Consumers today demand healthier food and more sustainable products.

Planting the seeds of change

While this ‘perfect storm’ of pressures is driving a new trend towards safer, more sustainable and environmentally-friendly crop protection solutions, the reality is that most of us are not ready to take the leap to go 100% bio products. New hybrid solutions are now proving a ‘best-of-both-worlds’ opportunity by combining biological and chemical crop protection active ingredients to provide an effective solution for long-term protection.

Hybrid - The next generation of crop protection

Years of farming and inbreeding have led to crops losing their natural immunity or resistance to fungal and bacterial pathogens. Despite the application of traditional chemical pesticides aimed to combat this resistance, either by chemical rotation, or mixtures of different chemicals, the result is highly toxic environments that are mostly effective in the short-term.

Regev™ – A new potent hybrid product for the control of plant diseases

A hybrid solution approaches crop control differently than traditional pesticides by creating a long-lasting and highly-effective solution. Regev™, by STK Bio-AG Technologies, the first potent hybrid fungicide in the market, has a unique activity that presents a very low probability for the development of resistance or cross-resistance in plant pathogens. The hybrid formulation contains 200 g/lit difenoconazole + 400 g/litL tea tree extract. This unique formulation provides various plant defense mechanisms of action including SAR & ISR for improved efficacy in plant disease control and the cultivation of successful crop yields.

Plants extract products that are considered to have a stronger impact on environmental safety, biodegradability and renewability with novel bioactivities and improvement of plant health for use by the agrochemical industry. These products are generally used in crop protection methods that contain secondary metabolites, which can be (but not always) involved in plant defense and plant growth.

At suitable concentrations, Regev™ significantly inhibits spore germination or lesion development on treated leaves, and limits the expansion of lesions caused by various fungi. This leads to a significant decrease in the fungi’s potential to infect plant tissues and cause disease - without exposing crops to toxic chemicals.

The preventive and curative activity of Regev™, combined with the indirect activity via the host plant either by systemic resistance or enhanced plant growth and yield, makes Regev a top performer in plant disease control. It is reliable, leaves little residue, and provides significant added value to growers.
Regev™ is currently used for controlling a broad range of diseases on arable crops, cereals, fruits and vegetables, helping farms of all shapes, sizes and crop variations effectively produce the best possible yields.

Regev™ has already been registered in Israel, Serbia , Philippines and various Latin American countries and is in the registration process in Brazil, the USA and the EU.

HYBRID – A win-win solution

Regev™ promises successful yields without risking your profit margins while simultaneously upholding regulations and responding to growing consumer demands.

The future of crop protection is here. Greet the “perfect storm” of industry pressures head on and meet your farming needs and your consumers’ demands.