Koppert reveals challenges in R&D of biological inputs in Brazil

At this year's Brazilian Entomology Congress (CBE 2024), Koppert hosted a special program unveiling the challenges in Research and Development (R&D) of biological inputs in Brazil. Dubbed Koppert Biotalks, the discussion brought together experts from various sectors.

According to Koppert's Research and Development Manager, Thiago Castro, "the R&D challenge is to harness what nature has already provided for us." 

He elaborated, "Transforming what we find in nature into something we can apply in the field, with scientific knowledge backing the development of a new product, is one of the hurdles we need to overcome. We are specifically looking for solutions and natural enemies that can be produced on a large scale, which is a significant challenge."

Castro explained that the next step is to bring organisms into the laboratory to better understand them and try to make them work as expected. "What we do is bring this innovation from the field into our facilities to understand what we're developing and working on. We then need to incorporate what we're developing into the regulatory framework," he pointed out.

The R&D Manager further noted that the regulatory part of the process is complex and time-consuming, but Brazil is overcoming this challenge as ministries work to accelerate timelines and offer more options to farmers. "After the regulatory phase, we launch the product," Castro stated.

Koppert's Macrobiologicals Coordinator, Jaci Vieira, affirmed that exploring natural diversity for the creation of biological products is one of the main strategies to address modern agriculture challenges. 

"Within this diversity, we identify which organisms have the potential to become biological products. We search for these species, bring them to the lab, and analyze their rearing process. We study all factors: the optimal temperature, the best humidity to work with, and whether there is a host involved. Some species only develop on natural hosts, and when we are talking about commercial scale, we need to be able to reproduce this. Sometimes we can't. That is the challenge," she explained.

As her contribution, Koppert's Microbiologicals Coordinator, Isabela Gotti, emphasized the need to find the best production processes for microorganisms. 

"We need to understand the biology of the microorganism we are working with: whether it is a fungus, a bacterium, or a virus, how it adapts, and what is the best culture medium to use. Additionally, we need to understand the proportion of carbon and nitrogen to add to the medium, whether it needs extra vitamins, oxygenation, light, and development time. All of this has to be adapted for each species," she stated.

Thiago Castro concluded Koppert's program by asserting that developing innovative technologies combining engineering and biology is another critical aspect of this process. 

"We know that without automation, engineering, and biology, combining these elements and transforming them into new technology is a challenge. All the machines developed at Koppert were made internally, so there is nothing ready-made in the market for us to buy. We have adapted many aspects from the food, health, and pharmaceutical sectors. Integrating biology into this engineering is the real challenge," he said in conclusion.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)