Providing Opportunities for Farmers through Biocontrol

According to FAO, plants make up 80% of our daily calories and are responsible for 98% of the oxygen we breathe. Yet almost 40 percent of crops are lost annually due to pests and diseases, costing the global economy more than $220 billion and threatening food security, livelihoods and trade. Moreover, the way plants are protected from pests and diseases can cause unintended harm to soils, biodiversity and ecosystems. Fortunately, biocontrol technologies offer solutions that work with nature and effectively regulate pests and diseases.

Biocontrol offers solutions

According to the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), biocontrol provides alternatives to harmful plant protection methods, thus enabling farmers to grow healthy food within planetary boundaries. In their paper on the drivers of food security, the European Union notes that, “a systemic change on how pests are managed can be achieved with widespread implementation of Integrated Pest Management,” which includes the use of biocontrol.

When farmers use biocontrol, they are preserving soil health, safeguarding biodiversity and ensuring farms are productive and profitable. What's more, they are contributing to food security and meeting consumer demands for healthy food grown in an environmentally- friendly way.?

Millions of farmers around the world are already using biocontrol, but with the right policy measures, it could be a lot more! So, how can we make this happen?

The sweet success of parasitic wasps in Brazil

Let's take look at Brazil, where biocontrol is used on more than 46 million hectares - over 3 million of which are sugar cane, often helping to manage pest and disease resistance to chemical pesticides.

In 2013, sightings of the cotton bollworm were recorded in central Brazil, a pest with over 250 hosts, and at that time, no chemical product was registered to control it. Farmers then applied biological control methods using a virus specific to the larva and the wasp, Trichogramma pretiosum, which proved to be successful. This was a transformative moment for biocontrol and agriculture in Brazil.

In 2014, key changes were made to the authorisation process in Brazil to allow biocontrol (and in particular, microbials) to be registered quickly and for control of a given pest across any crop. Numerous additional policies have since been put in place such as the National Bioinputs Program, which, amongst others, prioritizes small and medium biofactories and promotes a favorable environment for infrastructure financing. Arguably, it is these policy changes in combination with a market need that triggered farmers to try biocontrol, which resulted in extensive biocontrol use at farm level.?

In its National Pathways to Sustainable Food Systems, Brazil notes the role biologicals play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? “diversified agricultural and biological systems contribute to reducing hunger and poverty (SDGs 1, 2), promoting health and well-being (SDG 3), improving land and water use (SDGs 14, 15), building resilience and addressing climate change (SDG 13), and fostering regional socio-economic development (SDGs 8, 10, 12).”

European farmers missing out on innovations and opportunities

This is just one of many examples demonstrating how nature or nature identical solutions provide farmers with the tools they need to regulate pests and disease. Such solutions are becoming even more vital for farming where policy initiatives such as the Green Deal in Europe aim to minimise the use of chemical pesticides. This often leaves a gap in the farmers' toolbox which could potentially be filled by a biocontrol solution.? Unfortunately, lengthy approval processes mean European farms have to wait up to ten years for a new biocontrol product, whereas farmers in Brazil have to wait two or three years for a full safety evaluation and a final permit for use.

What's more, the US and Brazil have pathways dedicated to getting biocontrol solutions to market. The situation in the European Union is markedly different, where biocontrol solutions must take the same route as chemical solutions that do not originate from nature.

IBMA therefore calls on European decision-makers to seize the positive opportunities biocontrol offers farmers. Focus energies on what we can provide farmers, not take away from them. Embrace common ground such as cross-party support for biocontrol, and not get distracted by polarisation. By supporting access to biocontrol, we can equip farmers with the tools needed to regulate pests and diseases effectively and sustainably either alone or combined with the tools they currently use.?A win for all.