BASF and Brazil co-operative launch soy pest finder

BASF and Brazilian direct planting farmers co-operative, Cooplantio, launched the "second stage" of Laboratorio Movel. It involves the BASF Minilab, a free service to help farmers correctly identify soybean pests and diseases. A BASF technical team visits the major soybean growing region, Rio Grande do Sul, to help with diagnoses. Laboratorio Movel makes it possible to guarantee access to a rapid and correct diagnosis, without farmers needing to take leaves away to be analysed. Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) was detected later, in December, this season than in previous years in Brazil. It has been appearing later for the past couple of seasons but required a growing number of applications in recent years.