Biocontrols: New Answers To Old Problems on the Farm

Many of those attending the 2022 Biocontrols^SM USA Conference & Expo earlier this month in Monterey, CA, were fruit growers and consultants looking for biological answers to questions that have not been answered by conventional chemical controls. The conference, which was hosted by American Fruit Grower® magazine and its parent company, Meister Media Worldwide, featured a breakout session on fruit designed to present some answers.

Conference keynote speaker and biologicals industry veteran Dr. Pam Marrone, Founder and former CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations and current Director of Chestnut Bio Advisors, gave an incisive look specifically at the technological tools being developed.

Marrone says new tools are coming in all three major categories of biologicals, which have now exceeded $1 billion in sales, and are rapidly growing: biocontrols, biostimulants, and biofertilizers. Biocontrols, which includes biopesticides and bioprotection, is now at $3.5 billion, with a 17% compound annual growth rate; biostimulants, including crop enhancement and stress reduction, $2.5 billion, 13% CAGR; and biofertilizers, which includes bionutrients, $1.6 billion, 13% CAGR.

Why the Rapid Growth of Biologicals?

Marrone outlines the following reasons for the industry’s rapid growth:

• Solutions for better ROI in integrated programs
• Increased regulatory restrictions on synthetic chemicals
• Products are more science-based and higher performing
• Increased grower awareness and knowledge
• New modes of action for resistance management
• MRL and Codex-exempt spray right up to harvest; good for export
• Faster field re-entry, which lowers labor costs
• Filling unmet needs (thrips, nematodes, bacterial diseases, N fixation in monocots)
• Increased soil health, lower carbon footprint, and fulfilling consumer demands for sustainability and transparency
• Lower cost to develop (<$7 mil, <5 years)

Marrone went over numerous startup companies making news these days, including mating disruption companies utilizing new strategies such as nematode pheromones. Another new technology should be effective on spotted wing drosophila (SWD), a scourge for many small fruit growers, says Marrone. “There will be new sterile flies,” she says, “which should be a huge help.”

Prayers For SWD Bicontrol Answered?

SWD was one of the pests discussed by Kent Daane, Professor of Cooperative Extension, University of California, Berkeley. SWD requires multiple insecticide applications to keep it in check, which Daane says cries out for classical biological control. Those cries may soon be answered by a parasitoid, the beneficial wasp Ganaspis brasiliensis (Gb). For the past seven years, researchers have searched the world for such a parasitoid. “This is not just a national effort,” he says, “but an international effort.”

Introducing a new parisitoid is difficult because the USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service requires scientists to show seven factors for the importation – and a mountain of paperwork – because it is very much risk-averse.

“It’s more important to do no harm than it is to control the pest,” he says. “That is being what risk-averse means.”

Daane, optimistic about the project, presented this summary of project plans for 2022:

• “We have the proper USDA permits, and we have colonies of the proper parasitoids, so releases should begin in 2022, probably with (relatively) small numbers in May, June, and July.”
• “We plan to improve insectary methods and develop regional insectaries to hasten releases across the U.S.”
• “We hope to have coordinated release and sampling plans to provide “best release practices” of these valuable insects and to document impact.”
• “There is still science stuff to complete: 1) Gb population differences (within G1 and between G1 and G3); 2) Gb impact in different regions and environments; 3) pesticide impact on Gb; and 4) interspecific natural enemy interactions.”

Another presentation was on soil health and the use of biochar in vineyards by Josiah Hunt, CEO of Pacific Biochar. Hunt reviewed a multi-season biochar trial done by Doug Beck, the Science Advisor for Monterey Pacific Inc., a vineyard management firm that operates vineyards throughout the California Central Coast. The results were detailed last year in an American Fruit Grower cover story.