Native Brazilian bees are more sensitive to the pesticide thiamethoxam
Brazil
Native Brazilian bees are more sensitive to the pesticide thiamethoxam than the European bee (Apis mellifera), the model insect for toxicological tests for pesticide evaluation. Reduction of native bee populations is a serious environmental problem, with negative impacts on agricultural yields. “It is necessary to select some species, in addition to Apis mellifera, to understand how to create a better condition for protecting insects in the country”, said Osmar Malapina, professor at Unesp’s Institute of Biosciences in Rio Claro. (Unesp; Unicamp; UFSCar)
Fertilizer Purchasing Power Index for March was the lowest in the last 21 months, indicating a favorable moment for purchasing inputs by farmers. Fertilizer prices presented an average drop of 6% in the monthly variation. (The Mosaic Company)
Anvisa approves toxicological evaluation for registration purposes of the new technical products ipflufenoquin (Iharabras) and penflufen (Bayer). (Anvisa)
In compliance with court decision, Anvisa approves toxicological evaluation of pesticide carfentrazone-ethyl + glufosinate ammonium salt (Ouro Fino). (Anvisa)
Carlos Brito will be the new President of Nutrien in Latin America after April 28th, stepping down as vice president of commercial operations for the region. Current president, Andre Dias, should continue his activities as an advisor at the company. (Nutrien Ag Solutions)
BP Bunge wants to stop their use of mineral fertilizers, replacing them with bioinputs based on bacteria and organic matter. 100% of the use of nitrogen fertilizers has already been replaced by bacterium Nitrospirillum amazonense during the current harvest, in 50,000 productive hectares. The bacterium is a solution developed by Embrapa, and acts in nitrogen fixation. In the 2022/2023 harvest, BP Bunge began standardizing composting areas for mixing filter cake and sugarcane bagasse ash. Objective is to eliminate use of mineral fertilizers until 2025. (BP Bunge; Embrapa)
Ministry of Agriculture approves registration of 44 pesticides, including seven low-impact products. Of these, five are approved for organic agriculture. In 2023, 66 products have already been registered, 15 of which are low impact. Of those, nine are authorized for organic agriculture. (MAPA)
Amount of arrobas (unit equivalent to 15 kg) of live cattle to import a tonne of fertilizer (average price) increased in March 2023. This indicates a loss in the purchasing power of livestock farmers. Loss happened because of the decrease in the price of live cattle in March, pressured by temporary suspension of beef exports to China. (Cepea)
Fernando Adorno is the new “Brazil corn production director” at Syngenta. (Syngenta)
Syngenta launches the Synap corporate brand – Syngenta Agriculture Platform, new name of the company’s commercial platform. Stores under the Atua Agro, Dipagro and Agro Jangada banners became part of the platform, without losing their autonomy, and keeping their commercial brands. André Savino will be the general director of Synap in Brazil. (Syngenta)
According to Bernardo Silva, director of the National Union of the Fertilizer Raw Material Industry, the sector has gone through a process of deindustrialization and loss of competitiveness over the past 25 years. Silva said that the main milestone in this process occurred in 1997, with the ICMS agreement (state tax on the circulation of merchandise), that determined payment of taxes on sales of fertilizers within the country, without this being applied to imports. In this way, imports became cheaper than domestic products. (Sinprifert)
Administrative Council for Economic Defense approved the acquisition of Agrocerrado by Syngenta, without restrictions. The Council’s report concludes that “merger between Syngenta and Agrocerrado presents a low risk to competition” and that “there will be sufficient rivalry in the post-operation”. (CADE; Syngenta)
Latin America
Rizobacter announced an agreement with distributors Agrointegral and Agrac, to expand the sales of its line of bioinputs in Colombia. ″We have seen an increase in our participation in this market since 2017,″ said Diego Escobar, country manager for Rizobacter in Colombia. (Rhizobacter)
AgriGlobal announced investments of US$ 7.5 million in a factory for the production of biogranules. Company, located in the city of Balcarce, in the province of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, should produce granules of 2 mm in diameter containing Trichoderma harzianum fungus. This is a growth enhancer applied at the time of sowing, authorized for wheat. AgriGlobal exports granular baits to Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia and Uruguay. (AgriGlobal)
Researchers at the Center for Inorganic Chemistry at the National University of La Plata, in Argentina, are developing a method to detect pesticides in fruit and vegetable peels. Technique is called SERS spectroscopy, and consists of the use of an agar gel with silver nanoparticles. “This process causes the pesticide molecules to become enveloped by nanoparticles and encapsulated in the agar”, explains researcher Lorena Picone. In this way, it is possible to determine the presence of pesticides and their quantity in food, in addition to the type of molecule. (UNLP)
According to Miguel Díaz Canel-Bermúdez, president of Cuba, construction of the Labiofam bio-input factory in the province of Villa Clara has reached 90% of completion. Factory should “produce 6 million liters of fermented liquid biofertilizers and pesticides”, according to Canel-Bermúdez. Project started in 2021, with the objective of supplying 60% of national demand. Labiofam is a Cuban laboratory that researches and manufactures bioinputs and pharmaceutical drugs. (Labiofam; Presidency of the Republic of Cuba)
Fertilizers and agricultural pesticides are among the most exported products from Colombia to Vene
READ MORE: