Brazilian biotech company IdeeLab and ag giant Bayer will bring biological-based crop protection products to Brazil via a 12-month-long R&D partnership. The two companies will work together across the entire product development cycle, with the goal of eventually bringing biofungicide solutions to market. The company’s partnership with IdeeLab comes the same week Bayer said it will launch 17 new biological products in Latin America by 2030. While the companies have not yet released the specific pathogens they are targeting, a number of fungal-related issues impact the country’s key crops right now. Asian soybean rust, white mold, and target spot impact soybean yields; witches broom disease impacts cassava; and coffee crops are susceptible to leaf rust, brown eye spot and the aforementioned target spot. Like other farmers around the world, Brazilian producers also grapple with increasing resistance to commonly used fungicides, which in turn requires more frequent applications and raises production costs. Growers need more and better options to manage these problems, says Benoit Hartmann, insights, innovation & partnerships lead at Bayer’s Crop Science division. “Biologicals are another way we address these challenges by integrating these solutions into full-farm systems complementing the crop protection toolkit.” “It’s about joining forces to develop a product as fast as we can,” adds IdeeLab founder and CEO Ronaldo Dalio. Local expertise for locally tailored products As a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), IdeeLab helps other companies develop, test, and commercialize ag biological products. The company works with partners on everything from R&D models like the one with Bayer to the production of formulated, ready-for-market products. Dalio says IdeeLab currently has more than 30 products in market already and works with more than 60 partners, including Syngenta and ICL. One of IdeeLab’s differentiators is its exclusive microbial collection selected specifically for the biologicals market, and for tropical pests and diseases. “Especially when we talk about deeptech and innovation in the ag biological market, it’s important to use as sources the bacteria, microbes, metabolites, and molecules that are in tropical agriculture already,” Dalio tells AgFunderNews. This can make the research, development, and adoption process more efficient, he adds. In this partnership, IdeeLab, which operates a R&D facility in Brazil, will provide expertise in bioprocess engineering to determine qualities such as efficacy and shelf life. “Our role is to turn advanced microbial science into validated, transferable technologies that reach the field,” says Dalio. For Bayer, which has operated in Brazil for more than a century, already has multiple ag biological products in the Latin American market. IdeeLab’s work will provide the company with new candidates, three of which are already in field trials in Brazil. IdeeLab will also be able to provide access to local partnerships and expertise of regulatory markets in Latin America. Thanks to strong grower adoption and a favorable regulatory environment, Brazil is also at the forefront of ag biological development and growth. Row crops like corn and soybean lead the in terms of adoption, which is in contrast to other regions, where biologicals are more commonly found in speciality crop production. Bayer and IdeeLab have not yet specified which crops they will initially target, but plan to show results and hopefully commercialize a product after the 12-month timeframe for the partnership. Dalio suggests the two companies’ work will continue after that. “We will have all the go-to-market that we will do together, such as registration and other field trials and studies in order to get these products as fast as we can to the Latin American markets.” He adds that the two companies are already discussing possible future projects: “It’s a job that never ends, and this is just the beginning of a big partnership.” The post Bayer and IdeeLab partner to develop biofungicides for Brazilian farmers appeared first on AgFunderNews.
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