In sugarcane cultivation, regenerative management has been gaining more and more space in large-scale production, due to its benefits related to increased agricultural yield, cost reduction and the ability to enhance the circular economy within a production system.

Unlike conventional management, which conditions the soil only in its physical and chemical characteristics, in regenerative management, in addition to considering all these factors, biological characteristics gain prominence through the use of organomineral fertilizers, biological nutritional, biodefensive and natural biostimulants.

The use of these bioinputs has been increasing biodiversity and, consequently, bringing notable impacts in terms of increasing the health and resilience of the soil-plant system. Among the practices carried out in regenerative management, some are in fact disruptive in the sugar-energy sector, such as biological nitrogen fixers, phosphorus solubilizers, strains of bacteria and fungi that control pests and diseases. Others, however, are old practices that were being left aside, but that have returned to the surface and are now taking place in an updated way, amid new developments that include the use of composting and crop rotation. On the composting side, we have a strong use of industrial by-products, such as filter cake and soot, which are enriched with manure, natural phosphates, among other sources aimed at nutritional supplements, in addition to biological products that help in the composting preparation process and act as inoculants.

This practice, in addition to providing nutrients, is also an excellent source of natural carbon, making it fertile for increasing the soil's microbiota. At BP Bunge Bioenergia, we have already increased the use of compost in planting by 800% and, for the next harvest, we are positioned to close 100% of our crops using this resource. In addition to reducing the cost of inputs in the formation of plantations by 7%, this practice provides increases of approximately 15 to 20 tons in sugarcane productivity, also generating very positive residual effects on other cuts.

The concept of crop rotation, which is another ancient practice used to cover and protect soil, form sanitary voids and provide nutrition, mainly using legumes with nodular ability, is currently expanding. In addition to the benefits already mentioned, crop rotation with a seed mix, focusing on increasing microbiome biodiversity and using grasses as Brachiaria ruziziensis, has been gaining ground due to the volume of green mass incorporated into the soil, in addition to the significant increase in the amount of carbon in the form of organic acids, which is an excellent input for the proliferation of microorganisms.

The results are so positive that we have already projected a 150% increase in the areas in which we use this practice for next year, in addition to investing in innovations, such as the use of inoculants in rotational seeds. We are also exploring all modalities on the topic, always focusing on increasing biodiversity and supplying organic matter.

Since its founding, BP Bunge has invested more than 300 million reais in regenerative management solutions, generating significant gains in its agricultural yield, in addition to cost reductions. Regenerative agriculture, a topic in which the company is today recognized as a reference in the Brazilian bioenergy sector, has consolidated itself as our main agronomic strategy, being a facilitating management for leveraging productivity in a sustainable and low-cost manner. In this way, the company continues to invest in acquiring technical knowledge, generated through internal research on the subject, always looking for new agronomic solutions.

Furthermore, the experimentation process related to this theme has also played an important role in the advancement of sustainable agriculture in the company. All of our experiments are carried out on a large scale, so that there is good representation, since we have a broad structure that covers 11 units, in five different states. Furthermore, the experimental fields are always monitored by consultants and researchers from universities, aiming to guarantee support and security in the implementation of processes. Today, we have a dedicated team for this work that follows from ideation to result, from which we define the possibility of introducing new procedures into our technical protocol.

The success we are having in this experimentation process is related to two specific points: selection of protocols to be studied and capacity for large-scale implementation. The selection of protocols begins in the ideation process, which must be directly linked to our business strategy. The motivation to start an experiment cannot be exclusively technical, but part of a careful cost analysis, as, after all, our objective is to guarantee the highest sugar yield per hectare at the lowest cost, always respecting our main value, which It's people's safety.

After completing the entire experimentation process and confirming the gains, we move on to rapid implementation, as our premise is not to neglect the results. To achieve this, we have a technical structure that is currently centralized to guarantee the standardization and speed of the process. Furthermore, our execution capacity stands out as one of the company's differentiators, a factor without which it would not be possible to expand these practices in the significant way in which we have operated and which places us in the position of the greatest reference for regenerative management in the sector.

Even with all this progress in recent years and the excellent results we have achieved in the company, I think that the sugar-energy sector as a whole still has issues to evolve when it comes to regenerative management. The challenge of increasing productivity and costs, amid our long value chain and the high number of variables that affect our business, remains very great, in addition to the need to increase investments in issues such as studies to control rhizome diseases and Folha, for example, which are still low today.

Regarding these topics mentioned, there are many things in regenerative agriculture today that are already in the experimental stage, others in the idea and scope construction phase. At BP Bunge, in addition to moving steadily towards eliminating dependence on chemical fertilizers in the next three years, we will continue to strongly prioritize the use of biological products to control pests and diseases.

For pest management, our ambition is to control the main pests with 100% biological products in the next five years. This year, especially, our interventions with bioinsecticides are greater than with chemical products; Furthermore, 100% of our sugarcane fields are already being treated with fungicides that are 50% chemical and 50% biological. Today, the availability of biological solutions for this control significantly increased and we are testing several options with results Preliminaries that are very promising, even leading me to project that, soon, we will have almost 100% biological control for leaf and root fungi.

Given all of this, it is clear that we are experiencing a thriving moment in bioenergy agriculture, with countless possibilities and innovations that contribute to ensuring that our operations are increasingly aligned with sustainability commitments, which are today priorities throughout the world. At BP Bunge Bioenergy is a central issue for the business, therefore, we will remain firm in advancing regenerative management, seeking new technologies to increasingly improve the performance of our operations.