To innovate is to develop and apply new ideas and concepts. Innovations can be radical when there is a drastic change in the way a product or service is produced or consumed. When it comes to plant protection, the main radical innovations are new active ingredients or new resistance genes. Radical innovations are complex, expensive, take time to develop and, as they serve global markets, they need to undergo a process of acceptance or release for use on a worldwide scale.

When there is continuous improvement in products, processes or services, incremental innovation occurs. Incremental innovations result from the reorganization of existing knowledge and aim to meet specific local or regional demands. Sometimes custom solutions can be developed for specific customers. In terms of plant protection, incremental innovations can correspond to a new formulation, a mixture of active ingredients, more precise adjustment of the dose or time of application, new equipment or application techniques and a series of other technologies.

The launch of new active ingredients (radical innovations) has greatly slowed down in recent decades. In Brazil, the registration process of these new substances can delay their availability to producers by several years.

To meet market needs, companies have developed highly innovative formulations that have managed to solve many of the most relevant and urgent problems in terms of pest, disease and weed management. Examples of recent developments in terms of formulations are: insecticides or fungicides, which are mixtures of compounds that act on different sites of action; encapsulation technology of active ingredients; use of safer components; use of components, adjuvants or application techniques that reduce drift losses; development of specific solutions to circumvent limitations of the active ingredient itself, such as sensitivity to photolysis or volatility.

What has intensified in recent years is the “tropicalization” of pesticide formulations, especially herbicides. In Brazil, virtually all major annual or perennial crop production systems have the soil covered with straw, requiring pre -emergence herbicides to have the ability to pass through the straw layer and reach the soil in order to be effective.

In tropical regions, the incidence of ultraviolet radiation is also very high and increases the potential for photodegradation when herbicides are kept on the surface of the soil or straw. The development of formulations with lower losses by volatilization is perhaps the clearest demonstration of the competence of formulation developers operating in Brazil and the contribution of new formulations to sustainable production and with lower risks for applicators, consumers and the environment.

In the case of post-emergence herbicides dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and dicamba, formulations were developed with new adjuvants, salts (effectively cations accompanying the herbicides that are anions) and PH adjustments that practically eliminated losses in the form of vapor. In terms of the use of pre-emergence herbicides, the development of encapsulated formulations pendimethalin and especially clomazone, a herbicide graminicide widely used in sugarcane for more than three decades.

Clomazone is moderately volatile, and part of the herbicide can be lost in the form of vapor and transported to neighboring areas, implying a risk for sensitive crops. The use of encapsulated formulations virtually eliminates volatilization losses. On contact with the soil, the clomazone capsules rupture and release the herbicide within a few days.

But the most surprising thing is that the encapsulated formulations that were developed to reduce volatility also proved to be useful in reducing the uptake by sugarcane leaves, increasing selectivity and in increasing the transport of the herbicide from straw to soil by water from rain. When using conventional formulations of clomazone, about a third reaches the ground after rainfall. In the case of encapsulated formulations, practically all the herbicide can be carried by rain to the soil.

The four encapsulated clomazone formulations available in Brazil are effective in reducing volatility, but have some differences in terms of absorption through leaves and passage through straw. The rapid acceptance of these formulations by the market proves the great contribution they represent to sustainable production.

Equally notable have been advances in the development of formulations, adjuvants and application techniques that reduce drift. Only the part of the crop protection agent that is deposited on the target carries out the control. On the other hand, drift contributes to the contamination of the environment, neighboring areas and applicators. In terms of formulations, it is possible to use components that reduce the formation of droplets subject to drift, delay evaporation, increase deposition, for example.

In terms of application technology, the reduction of horizontal and vertical movements of the application bar, the reduction of the height of the bar, taking care not to compromise the uniformity of the application, the selection of spray tips, the adjustment of operating conditions and the correct use of adjuvants can allow for more effective and safer applications, in addition to expanding the intervals in which applications can be made, considering the limitations imposed by winds, temperature and relative humidity.

The uniformity of application with the smallest possible variation of doses in the field has also been an objective in the development of new formulations. Recent studies have shown that punctual doses can vary from 50 to 150% of the average dose observed, causing control failures and crop poisoning. The movements and height of the bar, the distribution and spacing of the tips and the uniformity of distribution of the active ingredients in the application solution are the main determinants of uniformity or unevenness of doses in the field.

Developing tank-stable formulations that contribute to dose uniformity in the field has become a compelling concern for formulation developers. The development of innovations necessarily goes through four stages: identification of the problem; the development of the solution; the production of information that demonstrates the advantages of the innovation developed and the use of innovation in generating benefits and producing wealth.

If Brazil has not yet managed to reach the density of knowledge necessary to discover new active ingredients, it has extensive and complex networks of professionals who practice agronomic knowledge on a daily basis. We have been able to develop, evaluate and use innovative formulations that contribute to the sustainable management of pests, diseases and weeds.