Drones are versatile tools with near unlimited potential for use in scientific settings. For example, drones can release biological control agents in areas that are difficult or dangerous to traverse, survey potential release sites, and monitor both target plants and arthropod agents.
The sales volume lept from R$ 262.4 million to R$ 464.5 million. Their data shows that between 20, the Brazilian industry recorded a 77% increase in the trade of biological inputs. The use of agricultural biopesticides as a strategy to biologically control pests and diseases has the potential to annually grow 20%, according to the Brazilian Association of Biological Control Companies (ABCBio). Can protecting mosquitos from malaria defeat the disease?Integrate them with precision agriculture. Biological control is a method of controlling pests, diseases and weeds that consists of using living.Agtech company UAV-IQ has announced a new aerial biocontrol service in California that uses drones to release beneficial biological control agents bred by Koppert Biological Systems. The integrated pest management (IPM) service offers a new way for conventional and organic growers to combat pests, reduce the environmental impact of pesticide usage, and address a growing labor crunch.the feasibility of using drones to release sterile flies in specific points of the northern border as a biological control measure against pests, such.In a newly released statement, the government has announced that the UK Space Agency (UKSA) is to pump £3.4m of new funding into ten “leading-edge projects that back UK academics using space to tackle global development problems”.These problems including the spread of malaria, which caused 405,000 deaths in 2018 alone, with a total of 228 million cases reported worldwide, according to latest figures from the World Health Organization.The government says that “using satellite, air-borne and ground-based sensing technology, academics at The Open University will detect where mosquitoes are most likely to breed”.Once these hot spots are identified, “sprayer drones” will then release biocontrol agents that will kill mosquito larvae “without affecting other species”.The pioneering new projects also include the development of “space-based solutions that will help protect wildlife habitats in Kenya, and another that will improve resilience to flooding in Bangladesh”, says the government statement.The UKSA’s International Partnership Programme (IPP) is funding the various schemes, which are intended to “help developing countries while building effective partnerships that can lead to growth opportunities for the UK space sector”.Science Minister Amanda Solloway said that “from flooding to climate change, around the world people continue to be affected by crises that are having a profound impact on their countries’ economies and their lives.“These ten new projects have the potential to provide solutions to the world’s biggest development problems by using the latest and most high-tech space technologies such as satellites, and help improve millions of people’s lives in developing countries.”The IPP’s head of international relations Liz Cox added that the projects “not only demonstrate the value of satellite solutions and improving the lives of people on the ground, but also facilitating effective alliances between the UK and international organisations”.
“The adoption of biological control has been boosted by the increasing insect resistance to chemical insecticides and by the urge for a more rational use of agrochemicals", analyzes the researcher Adeney de Freitas Bueno, from Embrapa Soybeans (Londrina, PR). "It is noticeable that there has been a repressed demand for plant defense solutions that result in lower impact in terms of waste, the main characteristic of biological agents", states Arnelo Nedel, chairman of ABCBio. And, according to the organization, there is still a large growth potential for the biological products.
For more information, check the website for the event (Bueno explains that, in the field, the natural control of agricultural pests is made by fungi, viruses and bacteria, in addition ot beneficial insects that have the habit of predating, parasiting or infecting the pests that affect soybeans. This year's theme will be "Biological control: from the academy to the field, towards sustainability". Siconbiol On August 11-15th, Londrina will host the 16th Symposium of Biological Control (Sincobiol), promoted by Brazil's Entomological Society (SEB),Embrapa Soybeans and Londrina State University. The researcher Adeney Bueno talks about biological control in soybean pest management Embrapa Soybeans is one of the Embrapa units that has been leading research related both to natural biological control (incentives to the maintenance of natural agents in the field to control agricultural pests) and to applied or augmentative biological control (when pest predators, parasitoids or entomopathogens are intentionally released into the crop). "What happens is that the abusive application of insecticides, at the wrong time, with very toxic products, ends up eliminating the natural biological control", Bueno warns.
Thus, even if the farmer does not buy or use any biopesticide in the crops, biological control will naturally occur. The rational use of agrochemicals is one of the measures to conserve natural biological control and allow it to shows its potential", he assesses. "Farmers need to conserve such natural biological control by employing the agricultural best practices preached in the integrated management of pests, weeds and diseases.
"My idea is to work in favor of nature, because when you work against it, the consequences turn against you", he says. Since then, the farmer has made efforts to build an environment that favors the natural enemies of the agricultural pests in his 1,700-hectare farm. The event, which took place 20 years ago, raised a sign of alert that the property was unbalanced. Use of nature Maize had just emerged at the farm owned by Richard Dijkstra, in Carambeí, PR, when insecticide applications were made to control the insect pest.
Registration of biological products Unlike the products used in chemical control, biological products can be registered per biological target, that is, per pest. My team brings information that give me confidence to intervene, if necessary, or to keep monitoring", the farmer explains. "I do not blindly make decisions. The farmer's decision-making is based on the knowledge generated during the property monitoring, which is led by employees trained to identify pests and natural enemies. "Firstly, I avoid 'shock products' (which not only kill the pests but also eliminate natural enemies) I prefer biological products or more selective chemical ones (those that only control the target pest and not all insects), when really necessary and I have also eliminated the 'free-rider' application (when another input is combined into the mix for the spray application)", tells the farmer.
Wasps There are also parasitoids of eggs known as "little wasps". "The offer of a baculovirus mix-based product to control a bigger range of caterpillars at the same application cost will revolutionize the market, because currently such biological insecticides are very specific", he explains. Bueno explains that there are companies working on a virus mix, which would make the control of a larger number of caterpillar species possible for a lower cost, and hence make baculoviruses more commercially attractive. Baculovirus spodoptera and Baculovirus helicoverpa were later introduced in the market. The first virus registered as a commercial product for soybeans was the Baculovirus anticarsia, used to control the Anticarsia caterpillar.
Using Drones Release Biocontrol Agents Registration By Competent
"These are options that can be more intenselty used in soybeans as biological products become more commercially competitive with existing chemical ones", he anticipates. Fungi Biological agents include fungi that cause diseases in some predatory insects or mites. "Upon being born, the parasitoids will do their job in the field: parasite pest eggs", he details. The ideal is that the farmer distributes them in the field as most homogeneously as possible, or uses a drone to distribute the parasitoids that are inside the host eggs. Bueno explains that the eggs with these wasps are released into the field close to plant emergence in biodegradable cases or by spraying the unprotected parasitoid pups over the plants. Another is the stinkbug egg parasitoid, Telenomus podisi, which is still at a stage of registration by competent agencies.
Integrated Management also contributes to the biological control of pests, as when fungicides are rationally used, for instance, beneficial fungi that work in pest control are also preserved for longer. "Farmers delay the first insecticide application in 30 days, which conserves natural enemies for longer in the field, improving natural biological control", he explains. In traditional areas, this first application occurs about 30 days after sowing. Moreover, in the areas that adopt IPM, insecticide is first sprayed 60 days after sowing, on average. The adoption of Integrated Pest Management in properties assisted by Paraná's Institute of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (Emater-PR) and Embrapa, in the last five years, for example, generated a reduction of about 50% in the use of insecticides.
0 kommentar(er)
