The interest in biologicals is growing quickly, including in the potato sector.
For the National Potato Guide, we asked representatives of two companies involved in the sector, Can Grow Crop Solutions and Vive Crop Protection (with Pro Farm), for their perspectives on where the potato sector is heading with biologicals.
The biologicals sector can be divided into two subcategories – bio-stimulants and bio-pesticides (or bio-controls). A bio-stimulant is any substance or micro-organism applied to plants to enhance nutrient efficiency, abiotic stress tolerance or quality traits, regardless of its nutrient content. Whether microbial or non-microbial, they fall under the Fertilizer Act and are regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
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Bio-pesticides are regulated by Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).
Shawn Brenneman, Jacco de Lange and Scott Anderson
Can Grow Crop Solutions
Since potato growers deal with above and below ground growth, the use of various treatments can have different impacts on the harvested crop. In spite of that challenge, potato growers have seen a greater adoption of biologicals, including seaweed extracts, humic and fulvic acids, natural hormones to micro-organics.
“In the industry as a whole, bio-fertility and bio-stimulants have been the big push, lately,” says Shawn Brenneman, director of commercial growth and strategy for Can Grow Crop Solutions in Eastern Canada. “But we can see many more product offerings in the bio-crop protection market, bio-fungicides and insecticides in the next several years.”
If there’s a drawback on biologicals’ adoption within the potato sector, it’s due to early misinformation and miseducation, or inconsistent results growers might have seen.
Yet regardless of whether it’s a bio-stimulant or a bio-control, growers must remember that these products are living organisms, not a synthetic fertilizer compound, chemical blend or a mineral. There are expiry dates, they can degrade in ultraviolet lighting and using chlorinated water can kill micro-organisms. If tank-mixing with other products, the pH must be within a neutral range.
“They require different best management practices compared to traditional inputs,” says Jacco de Lange, potato specialist with Can Grow. “But depending on a grower’s operation and the type of potato they’re growing and the fertility needs, biologicals offer flexibility of application. We have growers using bio-fertility microbes both in-furrow and at planting, or applied at hilling with liquid fertilizer products.”
In most cases when using a bio- logical, the grower is not drastically changing their normal or conventional programs. Many biologicals are meant to supplement or enhance normal farming practices and are compatible with traditional liquid fertilizers and other crop protection products.
“Biologicals are here to stay and will increase in adoption, but trial- ing and education are and will be a large part of our mandate to bring better solutions to potato growers,” says Scott Anderson, another of Can Grow’s specialists.
Dr. Doug Baumann, Vive Crop Protection, and Yves Trepanier
Pro Farm Group
Growth of biologicals across the agri-food sector has been much faster in the U.S. than in Canada, and in the U.S., it’s also growing faster than other pest control segments.
In the horticulture sector, it has grown faster in the past five years, spilling over from the organic industry into what’s now called the “sustainability-conscious” market. Foliar- and soil-applied biological products become effective enough to replace synthetic options.They’re also more affordable.
Vive Crop Protection is working to bring biologicals to the Canadian market from its base in Mississauga, Ont., where the company specializes in nanotechnology products (an approach that favours “doing more with less”).
“Our experience is that growers adopt biologicals where they make an impact,” says Dr. Doug Baumann, chief technology officer with Vive Crop Protection. “What’s changing in the industry is that impact used to mean efficacy alone, and now we see a broadening of what’s important to growers and their value chain customers.”
Yves Trepanier notes that 20 years ago, Marrone Bio Innovations screened more than 18,000 microorganisms for any sign of biological activity, in preparation for entering the market. Today with the evolution to Pro Farm Group, they’re still just scratching the surface.
“We are now selling some of the products that were discovered this way,” says Trepanier, senior director with Pro Farm Group, who’s originally from Canada but now works with the Davis, California-based company.
It takes longer to bring a product through registration here than it does south of the border.
“Vive was founded on a Canadian-invented nanotechnology which became the first such product approved by both the EPA and the PMRA,” says Baumann. “But the EPA approval took three years; the PMRA took eight.”
What also takes time in Canada, adds Trepanier, is satisfying the requirement to have supportive data that demonstrate efficacy.
“The bar is very high to be able to claim ‘control’ on a Canadian label, so most biological products end up with ‘suppression’ as the recommendation,” he adds. “I believe it plays a role in the slower adoption of those products. Many of the biologicals on the market today, in the U.S. or Canada, perform much better as preventatives than curatives.”
The other challenge with biologicals in the potato sector, is convincing growers that in adopting biologicals, they must re-think their approach to pest controls. In the U.S., most of the success has come from inserting biological products in a system approach with chemicals, yet with the decreased number of options in Canada, it’s been a slower job of getting growers to consider other approaches.
