Between 2018 and 2022, interest in biological inputs in agricultural production has grown, motivated not only by the efficiency of the products, but also by the increase in the price of fertilizers, fuels and other factors.

This movement is in line with an ongoing trend towards the use of raw materials and biological inputs (non-synthetic) with a friendlier origin for the environment and animal and human health within a more sustainable agriculture concept; This is not limited to fertilizers, but mainly encompasses crop protection (such as biological control), nutrition and animal health, among other product classes.

In economic terms, these practices lead to a reduction in dependence on imported inputs, partially decoupling producer costs from dollar fluctuations and international transport costs. We have as an operational procedure the production techniques inside the farm, which bring numerous benefits to the rural producer due to the quality of the final product, with less toxicity and greater efficiency.

Companies specialized in the production of factories inside the farm set up a structure that serves as a base for the biofactories , which are composed of automated tanks that guarantee the safety and quality of the bioinput production process . Microorganisms are multiplied using kits delivered to the producer, such as culture medium and anti-foam systems.

Attention to detail and care given by the company responsible for setting up the factory (mainly sterilization) is required in order to avoid contamination that could inhibit the multiplication process of bacteria or fungi.

One of the great challenges for sugarcane producers is to combat pests that attack the crop. In Brazil, the tropical climate makes this work even more tense.

A worldwide trend in the fight against sugarcane pests, biological control uses a series of insects, fungi and bacteria, or a mixture of them, to combat predators in the crop. Brazil has become a world reference in the biological control of aerial pests and the tactic is proving to be quite effective.

Today, at Rio Amambai Agroenergia , we have a Biofactory with a production potential of 16,000 liters per day of multiplied, used in the management of planting areas (through the use of stimulants and nematicides) and treatments of ratoon cane (focused on controlling nematodes and diseases) in part of the sugarcane area using “resistance inducers”.

Our facilities also have four microgeo tanks , with a capacity of 110,000 liters each. In this kind of biofactory , we first add organic matter that contains microorganisms from the local fauna.

To enable the survival and continuity of these organisms, the microgeo is periodically added ; balanced component that nourishes, regulates and maintains the continuous production of the biological fertilizer produced through the continuous liquid composting process.

The use of this technology has been increasing. In 2022, around 10,000 liters were applied in a total area of 21,000 hectares, including planting and ratoons.

In 2023, approximately 16,000 liters will be applied in a total of 22,000 hectares of areas under the unit's management. Therefore, around 15% of the total area of this property receives some type of bio-input .

We have focused on making nutrients available through solubilizing microorganisms, which help the plant to undergo water stress, for example, so as not to lose productivity and, naturally, help control pests and diseases through direct and or indirect control. (resistance induction).

We use as basic products:
Nematicide: bacillus subtilis plus Bacillus lincheniformis;
Rooting: azospirillum brasiliense;
Drought resistance promoter: bacillus aryabhattai;
Soil conditioner: efficient microorganisms;

The quality control of our production is standardized. At pre-established times, we take samples for quality assessment, targeting both the “raw material” and the multiplied material. It is worth mentioning that when we refer to the multiplication of any biofactory, we increase the dose taken to the field at the time of application and, currently, we are using about 20 to 30 times more than the recommended amount of the pure commercial product; we still have a mix of organisms (in the same syrup, application) that overlaps in relation to the benefits to the plant.

Follow-up camps have been set up within the operations unit that have been carried out. In this case, it refers to a fourth-cut ratoon of the CTC 9001 variety , production environment. Having been harvested in July 2022, we cut the stumps in August 2022 and used some market products alongside our multiplied ones. At the moment, the tillering has been analyzed, and then a pre -harvest biometry scheduled for August 2023 will be carried out. It is important to highlight that we started data collection in December 2022.

As observed in the last evaluation, there was practically no difference between treatments related to the number of tillers; there was an average of 5 repetitions within each treatment. In another sugarcane area, a comparison study was carried out in planting, variety RB98 8082, production environment D, planting in July 2022, in which the evaluations started in December 2022 will be completed in the harvest scheduled for July from 2023.

The products used in the chemical treatment are fungicide, nematicide and insecticide market standards; in the conventional treatment, our multiplied with biological nematicide and efficient microorganisms was used, which helps in the anti- water stress system of the plant, and a nitrogen fixer; in the latter, chemical insecticides and fungicides were maintained.

As in the case of sugarcane stump treatment, here we also observe that at 270 days that we have no difference in tillering under the evaluated conditions, both experiments have the same methodology. All tiller count locations will be kept fixed until the end of the evaluations, when the biometrics will be performed. In both fields, the number of tillers observed are within the range expected by the behavior of the evaluated varieties.

It is worth mentioning that when we compare the costs of treatments (market standard versus multiplied), we observe that the multiplied material is around 70% cheaper than the average market standard.