Agrishow 2024 - Bayer introduces Bayer Directo Nematoide program

Bayer's Climate FieldView booth at Agrishow 2024 introduced the Bayer Directo Nematoide program to AgroPages. 

Still, in the testing and validation phase, this program aimed to offer a personalized prescription for applying the nematicide Verango Prime (Fluopyram) in soybean cultivation areas. The program’s proposal is to map the zones with the highest risk of economic damage from nematodes in each plot, Bayer explained.

This allows for a ″precise prescription for application, rather than applying it across the entire area, leading to the optimized use of inputs and expanding the potential gain for the producer.″

In Bayer Directo, the prescription is generated from georeferenced data of the plots mapped in FieldView, as well as agronomic and environmental data. The prescription aims to indicate the zones where the application of Verango Prime is most likely to bring productivity gains, thus optimizing, sustaining, and assertively managing nematodes.

Currently, more than 160 producers are participating in the program's tests, covering an area of over 30,000 hectares. Based on harvest results and learnings from this crop season, Bayer announces that it will move on to the program's second year, expanding the regions and the number of participating farmers.

Productivity loss due to nematodes is the reality for many producers in Brazil, and the problem is only growing in the country's tropical agriculture. According to recent research by Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) and Aprosoja (Brazilian Association of Soybean Producers), damages caused by nematodes can reach an alarming BRL35 billion per year. 

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)